PayPal Philippines Now Accepting Payments

Great news for the Philippine online community! PayPal has been upgraded! Instead of only being able to send money through this service, we are now able to receive. This development will surely have a great impact on online transactions as well as open new opportunities for Filipinos who consider themselves technopreneurs. The country is NOW under the "Send. Receive. Withdraw to a US Bank Account or card" with 22 other countries. In this case, it's better to receive!

The Millennium Problems

Want to earn a million dollars? There's a way, but you have to be really smart! Just find a solution to one of the Millennium Problems of the Clay Mathematics Institute (CMI), which named the seven problems to celebrate mathematics in the new millennium. The Board of Directors of CMI designated a $7 million prize fund for the solution to these problems, with $1 million allocated to each. During the Millennium Meeting held on May 24, 2000 at the College de France, Timothy Gowers presented a lecture entitled The Importance of Mathematics, aimed for the general public, while John Tate and Michael Atiyah spoke on the problems. Up for it?

#1 The Poincaré Conjecture

In 1904 the French mathematician Henri Poincaré, asked if the three dimensional sphere is characterized as the unique simply connected three manifold. This question, the Poincaré conjecture, is a special case of Thurston's geometrization conjecture. The latter would give an almost complete understanding of three dimensional manifolds.

But, too bad someone already had dibs on this. After nearly a century of effort by mathematicians, Grigori Perelman sketched a proof of the conjecture in a series of papers made available in 2002 and 2003. The proof followed the program of Richard Hamilton. Several high-profile teams of mathematicians have since verified the correctness of Perelman's proof.

The Poincaré conjecture was, before being proven, one of the most important open questions in topology. It is one of the seven Millennium Prize Problems, for which the Clay Mathematics Institute offered a $1,000,000 prize for the first correct solution. Perelman's work survived review and was confirmed in 2006, leading to his being offered a Fields Medal, which he declined. Don't worry, there's still hope, the Poincaré conjecture remains the only solved Millennium problem.

#2 The Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer Conjecture

Supported by much experimental evidence, this conjecture relates the number of points on an elliptic curve mod p to the rank of the group of rational points. Elliptic curves, defined by cubic equations in two variables, are fundamental mathematical objects that arise in many areas: Wiles' proof of the Fermat Conjecture, factorization of numbers into primes, and cryptography, to name three.

#3 The Hodge Conjecture

The answer to this conjecture determines how much of the topology of the solution set of a system of algebraic equations can be defined in terms of further algebraic equations. The Hodge conjecture is known in certain special cases, e.g., when the solution set has dimension less than four. But in dimension four it is unknown.

#4 The Navier-Stokes Equation

This is the equation which governs the flow of fluids such as water and air. However, there is no proof for the most basic questions one can ask: do solutions exist, and are they unique? Why ask for a proof? Because a proof gives not only certitude, but also understanding.

#5 The P vs NP Problem

If it is easy to check that a solution to a problem is correct, is it also easy to solve the problem? This is the essence of the P vs NP question. Typical of the NP problems is that of the Hamiltonian Path Problem: given N cities to visit (by car), how can one do this without visiting a city twice? If you give me a solution, I can easily check that it is correct. But I cannot so easily (given the methods I know) find a solution.

#6 The Riemann Hypothesis

Formulated in his 1859 paper, the Riemann hypothesis in effect says that the primes are distributed as regularly as possible given their seemingly random occurrence on the number line. Riemann's work gave an 'explicit' formula for the number of primes less than x in terms of the zeros of the zeta function. The first term is x/log(x). The Riemann hypothesis is equivalent to the assertion that other terms are bounded by a constant times log(x) times the square root of x. The Riemann hypothesis asserts that all the 'non-obvious' zeros of the zeta function are complex numbers with real part 1/2.

#7 The Yang-Mills Theory

Experiment and computer simulations suggest the existence of a "mass gap" in the solution to the quantum versions of the Yang-Mills equations. But no proof of this property is known.

To know more about these math problems, visit the Clay Mathematics Institute website.

Osama at APEC?!

This is an interesting bit of news. A team of comedians from the Australian gag show "The Chaser's War on Everything", have managed to cause the first embarrassing APEC security blunder with one of the members dressed as Osama bin Laden managing to ride a fake motorcade through two police cordons into the red zone.

The stunt embarrassed Sydney police who have imposed the tightest security measures in city history for a summit of leaders from Pacific Rim countries, including Bush. Cast members put together a sham motorcade, hiring two motorcycles and three large cars on which they put Canadian flags. Police waved the motorcade through two checkpoints before pulling it over near the Intercontinental Hotel where Bush is staying.

"No particular reason we chose Canada," cast member Chris Taylor was quoted as saying on The Sydney Morning Herald's Web site. "We just thought they'd be a country who the cops wouldn't scrutinize too closely, and who feasibly would only have three cars in their motorcade as opposed to the 20 or so gas guzzlers that Bush has brought with him."

Below is the episode when they aired the said security breach. The Chaser, just brilliant!

Cool Physics in MIT

I wish we had these in our engineering classes. It would've made it more interesting and a lot easier to understand since less imagination would be required. For sure, I wouldn't sleep!

Engineering and Women

My girlfriend is an Electronics and Communications Engineering student. As I was looking for something to post, I stumbled upon a picture that explains the difference of men and women - with the use of something that is familiar to her... Hehe!

Brain Teasers 3

Here are the answers for the previous set of mysteries:

Polly Perkins

The parrot was deaf and couldn't repeat a single word it had heard.

Roller Coaster

Roller coasters don't have engines. They have a motorized track to get them up the first hill. Gravity then takes over to coast all the way to the end.

The Wisest Son

The son had showed his father a match. Whenever he lit the match, it filled the entire room, yet it was small enough to fit into his pocket.

Shirley Tate

Shadow noticed that Kareem only noticed the body on his way back. Therefore, when Kareem felt his way down the hall to turn on the light, he must have known the body was on the floor, otherwise he would have tripped over it.

Duffus the Tea Tripper

He waited until he was on the porch before he put the bag in. He still spilled hot water on the way but that evaporated without leaving a mess.

Here's the next batch. Try to see if you're a genius with this MENSA Intelligence test. You have to work out what the letters mean. For example, 24 H in a D means 24 Hours in a Day. According to MENSA, if you get 19 + of these, you are a "genius". Only 2 MENSA members achieved full marks. Scoring: 1 to 5 is Average, 6 - 11 Somewhat Intelligent, 12 to 18 Intelligent, 19 + Genius

1. 26 L of the A

2. 7 D of the W

3. 7 W of the W

4. 12 S of the Z

5. 66 B of the B

6. 52 C in a P (WJs)

7. 13 S in the USF

8. 18 H on a G C

9. 39 B of the O T

10. 5 T on a F

11. 90 D in a R A

12. 3 B M (S H T R)

13. 32 is the T in D F at which W F

14. 15 P in a R T

15. 3 W on a T

16. 100 C in a R

17. 11 P in a F (S) T

18. 12 M in a Y

19. 13=UFS

20. 8 T on a O

21. 29 D in F in a L Y

22. 27 B in the N T

23. 365 D in a Y

24. 13 L in a B D

25. 52 W in a Y

26. 9 L of a C

27. 60 M in a H

28. 23 P of C in the H B

29. 64 S on a C B

30. 9 P in S A

31. 6 B to an O in C

32. 1000 Y in a M

33. 15 M on a D M C

If you want more intelligence tests similar to this, click here!

Kiwi!

This video is great! It leaves a lot of room for discussion. Most wished the best for the kiwi, we never really knew what happened next.

All I can say is that we have to be like this kiwi. If you think about it, what it did took a long time to do. It had set out time and effort only for the dream to be reality, no matter what will happen next. Bring out the KIWI in you!

Gate$ Dollar$

Money makes the world go round! Sad, but true. Let's be realistic here, we can't live with love alone... In fact, one of the top causes of divorce is money! Anyway, like most of the people in this world, I'm finding ways to earn money. During my search, I came across articles. Articles that I'm not sure whether it can motive me or make me lose hope.

Of course, everybody knows Bill Gates. He's been number one on the "Forbes 400" list from 1993 through to 2006 and number one on Forbes list of "The World's Richest People" from 1995 to 2006 with $57 billion. It was only recently that he lost the title to a Mexican tycoon, but then again, he's been focusing on his foundation for the past years. In 1999, his wealth briefly surpassed $100 billion causing him to be referred to in the media as a "centibillionaire". I can't even reach the 10000 Philippine peso (around $200) mark! I'd like to share a few things I came across my search for money ideas.

Let's start with his company. Microsoft, at one time, announced quarterly revenue of $14.4 billion and net income of $4.93 billion. In other words, Microsoft's daily net income is about $55 million. That's $55 million in pure profit every 24 hours. Do some quick math and you'll learn it takes Microsoft only about...

...10 hours or so to exceed Red Hat's (NYSE: RHT - News) quarterly net income of $20.5 million.
...4 days to exceed Research In Motion's (NasdaqGS: RIMM) quarterly net income of $187.9 million.
...4 days to exceed Starbucks' (NasdaqGS: SBUX) quarterly net income of $205 million.
...1 week to exceed Nike's (NYSE: NKE - News) quarterly net income of $350.8 million.
...2 weeks to exceed McDonalds' (NYSE: MCD - News) quarterly net income of $762 million.
...2 weeks to exceed Apple's (NasdaqGS: AAPL) quarterly net income of $770 million.
...18 days to exceed Google's (NasdaqGS: GOOG) quarterly net income of $1 billion.
...23 days to exceed Coca-Cola's (NYSE: KO - News) quarterly net income of $1.26 billion.
...5 weeks to exceed IBM's (NYSE: IBM - News) quarterly net income of $1.85 billion.
...10 weeks to exceed Wal-Mart's (NYSE: WMT - News) quarterly net income of $3.9 billion.

Amazing, isn't it? Now, let's go to Mr. William Gates III. Most people will have read the reports of how Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has had his personal net worth soar over 100 billion dollars and then drop down to 55 billion.

Consider that he made this money in the 25 years or so since Microsoft was founded in 1975. If you presume that he has worked 14 hours a day on every business day of the year since then, that means he's been making money at a staggering million dollars per hour, around $300 per second. This means that it is not worth his effort to pick up a $1000 if he dropped one while he was walking. Assuming of course that it takes 4 seconds to pick it up and pocket it.

Another way to examine this sort of wealth is to compare it to yours. Consider an average American of modest wealth. Perhaps she has a net worth of $70,000. Mr. Gates' worth is 800,000 times larger. Which means that if something costs $100,000 to her, to Bill it's as though it costs 12 cents. You can work out the right multiplier for your own net worth.

So for example, you might think a new Lambourghini Diablo would cost $250,000, but in Bill Gates dollars that's 31 cents.

That fully loaded, multimedia active matrix 233 MHZ laptop with the 1024x768 screen you've been drooling after? Half a penny.

A nice home in a rich town like Palo Alto, California? Two dollars. That nice mansion he's building? A more reasonable $63 to him.

You might spend $50 on tickets, food and parking to take your date to see an NHL hockey game. Bill, on the other hand could buy the team for 50 dollars.

You might buy a plane ticket on a Boeing 747 for $1200 at full-fare coach. Mr. Gates could buy six 747s!

Bill could buy every single major league team in Baseball, Football, Basketball and Hockey for only about 35% of his net worth -- plenty left over to buy a European sport. Of course then he wouldn't have around $150 for every person in the USA as he does now. Nor could he still give $6.70 to every person on the planet. Bill could pay Michael Jordan's 1997 salary only 1300 times, but that he could buy 902 million subscriptions to TV guide. He's also fascinated by how much all this money would be if put into dollar bills. Laid end to end, the Bills would stretch 3.8 million miles -- to the moon and back over 8 times. They could paper over all of Manhattan 7 times, or be stacked 2,690 miles high -- watch out for satellites. They would weigh 40,000 tons -- 100 times the weight of one of those 747s he bought above.

BUT, one thing Bill can't do is even dent the national debt. Should he selflessly donate his stock to the U.S. treasury, he would reduce the $5.37 trillion national debt by well under 1%. It's nice to put things in perspective.

If I were Bill Gates, I would have earned thousands of dollars after writing this article. But then again, if I were Bill Gates, I wouldn't waste my time writing this article! By the way, Bill Gates was arrested for running a red light and driving without a license in New Mexico in 1977. Two years earlier, he got tickets for speeding and driving without a license. Hehe, had to throw that in!

The Infinite Monkey Theorem

A few weeks back, I was listening to Good Times with Mo (more on this on a later post) and the radio jocks were on the topic of luck. The main jock, Mo Twister, said he didn't believe in luck and that things happen just because all factors involved were properly aligned. He added that given an infinite number of tries, you'll be able to succeed in any situation - the lottery for example. With this statement, one of the other jocks - Mojo Jojo - disagreed and said that given an infinite number of tries wouldn't eventually result in a success but would only raise the probability of success. They continued to argue with Mojo screaming that he hoped a Math professor would call to back him up.

My elder brother of only a year is a finished BS Mathematics and is currently teaching Math in the same university where he graduated - the University of the Philippines. I brought up the story I narrated above and he had an interesting answer. He said Mo Twister was right! So ok, if a Math professor did call the radio show that morning, Mojo would've been placed in a deeper hole. So what exactly did my brother say that supports Mo Twister's side? The Infinite Monkey Theorem! At first I couldn't believe it, come on, it had a funny, unbelievable and not so credible name. Here's what my brother showed me - it's funny but interestingly true! And hey, it makes a lot of sense.

The infinite monkey theorem states that a monkey hitting keys at random on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time will almost surely type a particular chosen text, such as the complete works of William Shakespeare (my brother mentioned typing the Bible for his example). In this context, "almost surely" is a mathematical term with a precise meaning, and the "monkey" is not an actual monkey; rather, it is a metaphor for an abstract device that produces a random sequence of letters ad infinitum. The theorem illustrates the perils of reasoning about infinity by imagining a vast but finite number, and vice versa. The probability of a monkey typing a given string of text as long as, say, Hamlet is so infinitesimally tiny that, were the experiment conducted, the chance of it actually occurring during a span of time of the order of the age of the universe is minuscule but not zero. In mid-2003, researchers at Plymouth Univesity in England actually put a working computer in a cage with six crested macaques. The monkeys proceeded to bash the machine with a rock, urinate on it, and type the letter S a lot (later, the letters A, J, L, and M also crept in). The results were published in a limited-edition book, Notes Towards The Complete Works of Shakespeare. A researcher reported: “They were quite interested in the screen, and they saw that when they typed a letter, something happened. There was a level of intention there.”

The key to this theorem is the fact we are dealing with infinity. This is very difficult to grasp or accept since infinity exists only as an idea or concept and it isn't bounded. Take the largest number you can think of and that would still be nothing compared to infinity. Think about it, you can always keep on adding 1 to the largest you can come up with and even that would be minuscule to infinity. Now, I leave you with a letter from Ask Dr. Math which tries to explain the concept of the theorem and the importance of (at least) trying to understand the idea of infinity. Sorry Mojo! Thanks Kuya Chuck! As Buzz Lightyear would say, "To infinity, and beyond!"

===================
Date: 08/13/98 at 13:35:41
From: Doctor Benway
Subject: Re: Infinity Theory

Hi Adam,

So you want the mathematical perspective on the "monkeys typing" scenario? Keep in mind that this is going to be an entirely theoretical answer. As you can imagine, there are some serious practical problems with having an actual infinite number of monkeys typing on an infinite number of typewriters (e.g. where would you put them? what would you feed them?), but since we're mathematicians we can gleefully ignore such considerations.

The cheap and easy answer to your question is, "yeah, they'll crank out Shakespeare's works... eventually." This is assuming they really are typing at random. The monkeys with typewriters I have personally observed (mostly of the "young human/little sister" variety) tend to bang on the same keys repeatedly, so it's hard to imagine them actually turning out Shakespeare. But again, this is math so we will ignore the real world.

As large as Shakespeare's collected works are, they are still finite. If you type at random, eventually some six-jillion-letter combination you type will end up being the collected works of Shakespeare.

An easier way to think about this is picking lottery numbers. Imagine you are filthy rich and decide to buy a bunch of lottery tickets in an effort to win Powerball. Since you are filthy rich, you can afford to buy six jillion lottery tickets with every possible combination of numbers that could come up, and thus you would be guaranteed to win the lottery. It's the same concept with monkeys typing.

The grittiest detail in this problem is that the answer is only yes if we are talking about an infinite number of trials; that is, having an infinite number of monkeys or letting one monkey pound away for an infinite amount of time. If we are restricted to a finite number of monkeys and a finite amount of time, then the answer is no. It is entirely possible that in a finite amount of time a finite number of monkeys may type out nothing but pages upon pages of meaningless drivel. It's also possible (although unlikely) that one monkey may get it right the first time.

A good way to think of this is to imagine rolling a six-sided die numerous times and waiting for a six to come up. It may come up on the first roll. It's possible that you could keep rolling and rolling millions of times without a six coming up, although you would expect it to come up within six rolls, since there is a 1/6 chance of a 6 turning up on each roll.

Let's do an actual example. Since the collected works of Shakespeare are a pretty lofty goal, let's just see about how long we would expect it to take for a monkey to crank out one of Shakespeare's sonnets, for example the following:

Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest – 48
Now is the time that face should form another – 45
Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest – 43
Thou dost beguile the world unbless some mother – 47
For where is she so fair whose uneard womb – 42
Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry – 37
Or who is he so fond will be the tomb – 37
Of his self love to stop posterity – 34
Thou art thy mothers glass and she in thee – 42
Calls back the lovely April of her prime – 40
So thou through windows of thine age shall see – 46
Despite of wrinkles this thy golden time – 40
But if thou live rememberd not to be – 36
Die single and thine image dies with thee – 41

In the above sonnet I removed all punctuation, just leaving the letters and spacing--we can't expect too much; they're only monkeys, right? If my letter count is correct, this leaves 572 letters and spaces. To further simplify, we won't worry about carriage returns, capital letters, or any other such stuff.

Anyhow, say we give a monkey a special typewriter that has 27 keys (26 keys for the letters of the alphabet along with a space bar). We let the monkey type 572 characters at a time, pull the sheet out, and see if it's the sonnet. If not, we keep going.

We'll do some calculations on the fly here to see how long this process will take. Got a calculator handy? First of all let's find out how many 572-letter possibilities there are for the monkey to type. We have 572 characters, and 27 choices for each character, so there will be 27^572 possibilities (that's 27 times itself 572 times). Punching this into my calculator... er... okay, on second thought better use a computer....I get the following number of possibilities:

549633378456109939369304853136804434488792619419853252069411
704905624725684243954820588519270755936792132632239916490954
44601504350463483987502561010414086460850490853411952678960
839922298611768407241462276825362149083044273958125194745460
868312880102366397357837669195731275403452575089566044810413
932116060031762894505524988451285440971813773606694016394647
3467668970711919689863460271936750837609798272198814318196353
508677072352860318543869285550386400760568981153396804398898
6405766599463462698265327115247396919065553432976472680492423
51268634615991179187453007805890829071114522894672065623217961
7918122048513536649039309753565419938168852881272755213408072
890621434530416560019423439471934830848855872828533855304539
966157990280226894034880876348035916773644663789090917440538
24079947245708112252748079248200721

It's a big number, about 5*10^818.

Let's say our monkey can type about 120 characters per minute. Then the monkey will be cranking out one of these about every five minutes, 12 every hour, 288 per day, and 105120 of them per year. Divide that big number by 105120 and you get that it would take that monkey about 5*10^813 years to type out that sonnet.

Now say we get 10^813 (that's ten followed by 813 zeros) monkeys working on the job. With that many monkeys working 24 hours a day, typing at random, one of them is likely to crank out the sonnet we are looking for within five years. If the monkeys are particularly unlucky, you may have to let them run an infinite amount of time before they crank out the desired sonnet, but chances are with this many monkeys on the job you will get results in five years.

To make a long story short, if you have only a finite number of outcomes and you take an infinite number of trials, you will end up getting the outcome you are looking for.

Well, forget about making a long story short, I'll give you one more mind-blowing example. A typical digitized picture on your computer screen is 640 pixels long by 480 pixels wide, for a total of 307200 pixels. Using only 256 different colors, you can get decent resolution. Now if you take 256^307200 (256 times itself 307200 times) you get... well, a pretty big number, but a finite number nonetheless. That's the number of different images you can have of that particular size. Any picture you would scan into a computer at that size and resolution will necessarily be one of those images. Therefore, contained in those images are the images of the faces of every human being who ever lived along with the images of the faces of every person yet to be born.

Deep stuff, eh? I'll leave you with that thought. Thanks for writing.

- Doctor Benway, The Math Forum

Pop Tarts

A Pop-Tart is a flat rectangular toaster pastry approximately 3 by 5.5 in (75 by 115 mm), made by the Kellogg Company. Pop-Tarts have a sugary filling sealed inside two layers of rectangular, thin pastry crust. Most varieties have frosting, but some do not. They can be eaten without being warmed, but are often warmed inside a toaster. More recently, certain varieties have been marketed as tasting best when left to cool in the freezer. They are usually sold in pairs inside foil packages, and do not require refrigeration.

Popular flavors include (but are not limited to) blueberry, frosted strawberry, frosted brown sugar, cinnamon, cherry, hot fudge sundae, and s'mores. I'm interested to have a taste of chocolate chip cookie dough, cookies and cream, cheese danish and mint chocolate chip. Too bad the more traditional flavors are the only ones available here in the Philippines. But then again, they are still delicious and addicting!

Branding certainly played a vital role in this pastry's history. Post Cereals first created the confection that would become Pop-Tarts in the early 1960s. They adapted their process of enclosing dog food in foil to keep it fresh without rotting for their new toaster0-prepared breakfast food. Intended to compliment their cold cereals, Post announced their new product in 1963 to the press, giving them the name "Country Squares." Because Post had revealed Country Squares before it was ready, Post's biggest competitor, Kellogg, was able to develop their own version in six months. Internally at Kellogg, the pastry was known as a "dolliesscone." Post released their Country Squares in the same year, but sales lagged behind Pop-Tarts. It is widely believed that Country Squares failed because of their name. In the progressive culture of the time, with TV shows like "The Beverly Hillbillies", the name "Country Squares" was associated with being backward and boring. Country Squares failed to take off, while Pop-Tarts became a sensation. At first, Pop-Tarts were not frosted because it was believed that the frosting would melt in the toaster. However, they later discovered that frosting could survive the toaster and released the first frosted Pop-Tarts in 1967.

In 1971, a cartoon character named Milton the Toaster was introduced to promote Pop-Tarts. The campaign ended when a commercial showed a child hugging the toaster, leading to complaints that children might imitate the commercial and burn themselves. In 1992, Pop-Tarts became the focus of more controversy, when Thomas Nangle sued Kellogg for damages after his Pop-Tart got stuck and caught fire in his toaster. The case gained notoriety when a humor columnist wrote a column about starting a fire in his own toaster with Pop-Tarts. In 1994, a Texas A&M University professor performed an experiment proving that, when left in the toaster too long, strawberry Pop-Tarts could produce flames over a foot high. The discovery triggered a flurry lawsuits. Since then, Pop-Tarts carry the warning: "Do not leave toasting appliances unattended due to possible risk of fire."

One thing that I really love about this product aside from it's taste is its convenience. It is vey handy and I can have it anytime of the day. It can be a meal for breakfast, lunch or dinner. I can have it for midmorning, midafternoon or midnight snack. I can have it while driving, studying, watching movies or if I'm really careful, in the shower. That's how much I love Pop-Tarts, "Crazy Good"!

God is Good

I'm so angry at this statement's use, I don't even know how to begin! I totally with my mind, my heart, my soul and my whole strength BELIEVE in this statement. What really ticks me off is how people use this sentence.

Scenario: I'm watching Kapamilya Deal or No Deal. The player first chooses a briefcase from the 26 available and that will be used to play the game. Then comes the part where the player chooses from the remaining 25, one by one. This would reveal to the player, little by little, the chances of getting that elusive jackpot. At some points of the game, the host will talk to a mysterious shadow called the Banker, who makes an offer to the contestant. The ultimate question is asked, "Deal or No Deal?" If the player chooses deal, the offer of the Banker will be won, but if it is No Deal, the game continues until all cases are open.

Ok, so I'm not good at narrating how the game goes but after all that, I've already pulled my hair out for 3 reasons.

REASON 1

When the contestant chooses a briefcase to open, he or she starts shouting, "LOWER! LOWER!" Lower than what?! The player should shout LOW, NOT LOWER!!! What you have in that game are LOW and HIGH amounts. Not LOWER and HIGHER amounts!

REASON 2

When the contestant goes on a high amount opening streak, the host would tell the player to stop doing that and start doing well. Ok... It's a game of chance! You can't improve your performance! It's not like a basketball or soccer game where you can make adjustments on your technique or strategy. Chance is not a skill that you can practice!

REASON 3

This is in reference to the title of the post. When the player opens a low amount case, he or she, together with the host will start saying, "God is good!" Ok, as I've said before, I believe that God is good... BUT how come I don't hear that from them when they start opening high amount cases?! Whenever something good happens, all you hear is "God is good!" or "Praise God!" I'd like to hear them say that whenever times are bad!

What's Bad About UAAP Season 70

These commercials are soooooo wrong! Makes me want to boycott the games. BAKEEEEEET?! ANUNG GAGAWIN KOOOOOOH?!

Optical Illusions 2

The following optical illusions are called AFTER IMAGES. The nature of our visual system allows us to sometimes see "after images" which appear once the original stimuli are removed. The colors in this type of optical illusion are usually the opposite or complementary colors of the original.

Instructions: Stare at the center of the figure for 45 seconds. Move your gaze to a blank white surface and see the correct colors appear. It's advised to have a blank white sheet of paper at hand to make it easier looking for a blank white area. Go ahead and try to make one yourself. Enjoy!

Brazilian FlagBritish Flag
Canadian Flag

French Flag
Indian Flag
Italian Flag
Malaysian Flag
USA flag

Keys to Success

What does it take to make it to the top? What do you need or need to be in order to be the best? How do you become successful? There are plenty of answers to these questions. Some may say you need the 3 C's: character, competence and charisma. Some just believe in luck.

Just for the fun of it, let's try to figure out which is really helpful to be the alpha dog. How? Using math, of course! Simple addition to be more specific. First, let's list down the letters of the alphabet and assign each letter with a number:

A – 1	H – 8	O – 15	V – 22
B – 2	I – 9	P – 16	W – 23
C – 3	J – 10	Q – 17	X – 24
D – 4	K – 11	R – 18	Y – 25
E – 5	L – 12	S – 19	Z – 26
F – 6	M – 13	T – 20
G – 7	N – 14	U – 21

Then to know which are the keys to success, just get the equivalent KEY VALUE. If you hit a value of 100 (or strictly speaking, 89 since SUCCESS = 89), then that would be the key. Let's take an example. I said earlier that people just rely on LUCK. Based on the equation,

L + U + C + K = 12 + 21 + 3 + 11 = 47

This shows that LUCK wouldn't even give you half of the success.

I've searched for different characteristics that are said to be keys to success and here they are with their corresponding key values. If there are errors to my arithmetic, I would welcome corrections, thank you very much!

This first batch includes key values less than 89:

LOGIC = 46 (you'll be better off with LUCK!)
ACADEMICS = 58 (so much for studying!)
FOCUS = 64
EFFORT = 70
CHARISMA = 72
CHARACTER = 77
CONFIDENCE = 84

This next batch are the keys to success with key values of 89 to 100 (inclusive):

PASSION = 93
KNOWLEDGE = 96
LEADERSHIP = 98
COMPETENCE = 99 (close, but no cigar!)
ATTITUDE = 100
DISCIPLINE = 100

It can be seen that with the right ATTITUDE and DISCIPLINE, you're on your way to success. But of course, we can always do more with the following key values of over 100:

INTELLIGENCE = 115
CONNECTIONS = 131
PERSEVERANCE = 131
ORGANIZATION = 149
RESOURCEFULNESS = 200

Interestingly enough, there's one more thing that's beyond 100 and will get you somewhere if you want, ASS KISSING = 127! And how true it is!

40 winks

I love to sleep! It has got to be my favorite activity. I sleep anytime - morning, noon, afternoon, night, midnight or early morning. I sleep anywhere - in bed, on the couch, on the chair or toilet, in the car, on a cot, on a hammock. I sleep during class, while taking the jeep or train, while watching TV, while studying or working out in the gym and during a lot more activities. I can sleep for a whole day if I'm dead tired or simply if I wanted to.

Why do I love to sleep? Here's my excuse, I'd like to think sleeping is a science. Until the 1950s, most people thought of sleep as a passive, dormant part of our daily lives. We now know that our brains are very active during sleep. Moreover, sleep affects our daily functioning and our physical and mental health in many ways that we are just beginning to understand.

Nerve-signaling chemicals called neurotransmitters control whether we are asleep or awake by acting on different groups of nerve cells, or neurons, in the brain. Neurons in the brainstem, which connects the brain with the spinal cord, produce neurotransmitters such as serotonin and norepinephrine that keep some parts of the brain active while we are awake. Other neurons at the base of the brain begin signaling when we fall asleep. These neurons appear to "switch off" the signals that keep us awake. Research also suggests that a chemical called adenosine builds up in our blood while we are awake and causes drowsiness. This chemical gradually breaks down while we sleep.

During sleep, we usually pass through five phases of sleep: stages 1, 2, 3, 4, and REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. These stages progress in a cycle from stage 1 to REM sleep, then the cycle starts over again with stage 1. We spend almost 50 percent of our total sleep time in stage 2 sleep, about 20 percent in REM sleep, and the remaining 30 percent in the other stages. Infants, by contrast, spend about half of their sleep time in REM sleep.

During stage 1, which is light sleep, we drift in and out of sleep and can be awakened easily. Our eyes move very slowly and muscle activity slows. People awakened from stage 1 sleep often remember fragmented visual images. Many also experience sudden muscle contractions called hypnic myoclonia, often preceded by a sensation of starting to fall. These sudden movements are similar to the "jump" we make when startled. This usually happens when I sleep during class and it is quite embarrassing. Upon awaking from the sudden jerk, to add insult to injury, I see a pool of drool on my desk. When we enter stage 2 sleep, our eye movements stop and our brain waves (fluctuations of electrical activity that can be measured by electrodes) become slower, with occasional bursts of rapid waves called sleep spindles. In stage 3, extremely slow brain waves called delta waves begin to appear, interspersed with smaller, faster waves. By stage 4, the brain produces delta waves almost exclusively. It is very difficult to wake someone during stages 3 and 4, which together are called deep sleep. There is no eye movement or muscle activity. People awakened during deep sleep do not adjust immediately and often feel groggy and disoriented for several minutes after they wake up. Some children experience bedwetting, night terrors, or sleepwalking during deep sleep.

When we switch into REM sleep, our breathing becomes more rapid, irregular, and shallow, our eyes jerk rapidly in various directions, and our limb muscles become temporarily paralyzed. Our heart rate increases, our blood pressure rises, and males develop penile erections. When people awaken during REM sleep, they often describe bizarre and illogical tales – dreams. Just a tip, if you want to talk to sleeping people, make sure their eyes are going haywire, hehehe!

The first REM sleep period usually occurs about 70 to 90 minutes after we fall asleep. A complete sleep cycle takes 90 to 110 minutes on average. The first sleep cycles each night contain relatively short REM periods and long periods of deep sleep. As the night progresses, REM sleep periods increase in length while deep sleep decreases. By morning, people spend nearly all their sleep time in stages 1, 2, and REM.

People awakened after sleeping more than a few minutes are usually unable to recall the last few minutes before they fell asleep. This sleep-related form of amnesia is the reason people often forget telephone calls or conversations they've had in the middle of the night. It also explains why we often do not remember our alarms ringing in the morning if we go right back to sleep after turning them off.

Since sleep and wakefulness are influenced by different neurotransmitter signals in the brain, foods and medicines that change the balance of these signals affect whether we feel alert or drowsy and how well we sleep. Caffeinated drinks such as coffee and drugs such as diet pills and decongestants stimulate some parts of the brain and can cause insomnia, or an inability to sleep. Many antidepressants suppress REM sleep. Heavy smokers often sleep very lightly and have reduced amounts of REM sleep. They also tend to wake up after 3 or 4 hours of sleep due to nicotine withdrawal. Many people who suffer from insomnia try to solve the problem with alcohol – the so-called night cap. While alcohol does help people fall into light sleep, it also robs them of REM and the deeper, more restorative stages of sleep. Instead, it keeps them in the lighter stages of sleep, from which they can be awakened easily.

People lose some of the ability to regulate their body temperature during REM, so abnormally hot or cold temperatures in the environment can disrupt this stage of sleep. If our REM sleep is disrupted one night, our bodies don't follow the normal sleep cycle progression the next time we doze off. Instead, we often slip directly into REM sleep and go through extended periods of REM until we "catch up" on this stage of sleep.

People who are under anesthesia or in a coma are often said to be asleep. However, people in these conditions cannot be awakened and do not produce the complex, active brain wave patterns seen in normal sleep. Instead, their brain waves are very slow and weak, sometimes all but undetectable.

If you reach this point, I give you a pat on the back for not falling asleep, YET. Maybe you're starting to yawn and your eyes are staring to close. It's amazing how studies on sleep can make you sleepy.

How much sleep do we need? The amount of sleep each person needs depends on many factors, including age. Infants generally require about 16 hours a day, while teenagers need about 9 hours on average. For most adults, 7 to 8 hours a night appears to be the best amount of sleep, although some people may need as few as 5 hours or as many as 10 hours of sleep each day. Women in the first 3 months of pregnancy often need several more hours of sleep than usual. The amount of sleep a person needs also increases if he or she has been deprived of sleep in previous days. Getting too little sleep creates a "sleep debt," which is much like being overdrawn at a bank. Eventually, your body will demand that the debt be repaid. We don't seem to adapt to getting less sleep than we need; while we may get used to a sleep-depriving schedule, our judgment, reaction time, and other functions are still impaired.

People tend to sleep more lightly and for shorter time spans as they get older, although they generally need about the same amount of sleep as they needed in early adulthood. About half of all people over 65 have frequent sleeping problems, such as insomnia, and deep sleep stages in many elderly people often become very short or stop completely. This change may be a normal part of aging, or it may result from medical problems that are common in elderly people and from the medications and other treatments for those problems.

Experts say that if you feel drowsy during the day, even during boring activities, you haven't had enough sleep. If you routinely fall asleep within 5 minutes of lying down, you probably have severe sleep deprivation, possibly even a sleep disorder. Microsleeps, or very brief episodes of sleep in an otherwise awake person, are another mark of sleep deprivation. In many cases, people are not aware that they are experiencing microsleeps. The widespread practice of "burning the candle at both ends" in western industrialized societies has created so much sleep deprivation that what is really abnormal sleepiness is now almost the norm.

Many studies make it clear that sleep deprivation is dangerous. Sleep-deprived people who are tested by using a driving simulator or by performing a hand-eye coordination task perform as badly as or worse than those who are intoxicated. Sleep deprivation also magnifies alcohol's effects on the body, so a fatigued person who drinks will become much more impaired than someone who is well-rested. Caffeine and other stimulants cannot overcome the effects of severe sleep deprivation. One more possible side effects of a continued lack of sleep is death. Usually this is the result of the fact that the immune system is weakened without sleep. The number of white blood cells within the body decreases, as does the activity of the remaining white blood cells. The body also decreases the amount of growth hormone produced. The ability of the body to metabolize sugar declines, turning sugar into fat. One study stated that people who sleep less than four hours per night are three times more likely to die within the next six years. Although the longest a human has remained awake was eleven days rats that are continually deprived of sleep die within two to five weeks, generally due to their severely weakened immune system.

Are you still up at this point? High five!

To make up for lack of sleep and keep yourself alive, try POWER NAPS. Studies show that 20 minutes of sleep in the afternoon provides more rest than 20 minutes more sleep in the morning (though the last two hours of morning sleep have special benefits of their own). The body seems to be designed for this, as most people’s bodies naturally become more tired in the afternoon, about 8 hours after we wake up.

Many experts advise to keep the nap between 15 and 30 minutes, as sleeping longer gets you into deeper stages of sleep, from which it’s more difficult to awaken. Also, longer naps can make it more difficult to fall asleep at night, especially if your sleep defecit is relatively small. However, research has shown that a 1-hour nap has many more restorative effects than a 30-minute nap, including a much greater improvement in cognitive functioning. The key to taking a longer nap is to get a sense of how long your sleep cycles are, and try to awaken at the end of a sleep cycle. It’s actually more the interruption of the sleep cycle that makes you groggy, rather than the deeper states of sleep.

As there are pros and cons to each length of sleep, you may want to let your schedule decide: if you only have 15 minutes to spare, take them! But if you could work in an hour nap, you may do well to complete a whole sleep cycle, even if it means less sleep at night. If you only have 5 minutes to spare, just close your eyes; even a brief rest has the benefit of reducing stress and helping you relax a little, which can give you more energy to complete the tasks of your day.

Lastly, here are tips to help you sleep:

• Set a schedule, go to bed at a set time each night and get up at the same time each morning. Disrupting this schedule may lead to insomnia. "Sleeping in" on weekends also makes it harder to wake up early on Monday morning because it re-sets your sleep cycles for a later awakening.

• Try to exercise 20 to 30 minutes a day. Daily exercise often helps people sleep, although a workout soon before bedtime may interfere with sleep. For maximum benefit, try to get your exercise about 5 to 6 hours before going to bed.

• Avoid drinks that contain caffeine, which acts as a stimulant and keeps people awake. Sources of caffeine include coffee, chocolate, soft drinks, non-herbal teas, diet drugs, and some pain relievers. Smokers tend to sleep very lightly and often wake up in the early morning due to nicotine withdrawal. Alcohol robs people of deep sleep and REM sleep and keeps them in the lighter stages of sleep.

• A warm bath, reading, drinking a chocolate drink or another relaxing routine can make it easier to fall sleep. You can train yourself to associate certain restful activities with sleep and make them part of your bedtime ritual.

• If possible, wake up with the sun, or use very bright lights in the morning. Sunlight helps the body's internal biological clock reset itself each day. Sleep experts recommend exposure to an hour of morning sunlight for people having problems falling asleep.

• If you can't get to sleep, don't just lie in bed. Do something else, like reading, watching television, or listening to music, until you feel tired. The anxiety of being unable to fall asleep can actually contribute to insomnia.

• Maintain a comfortable temperature in the bedroom. Extreme temperatures may disrupt sleep or prevent you from falling asleep.

And if all else fails and you still have trouble falling asleep night after night, or if you always feel tired the next day, then you may have a sleep disorder and should see a physician. Your primary care physician may be able to help you; if not, you can probably find a sleep specialist at a major hospital near you. Most sleep disorders can be treated effectively, so you can finally get that good night's sleep you need.

To wrap things up, I love to sleep because I want to keep myself alive. Plus it boosts your immune system, makes you smarter, helps you look better, increases concentration, and makes you a better person. Congratulations for keeping yourself up for this post! Now go, get some sleep!