There’s an interesting meme that was picked up by Duncan Riley over at the Inquisitr earlier this evening with regard to the effect of FriendFeed on traditional blogging. It’s an interesting meme and something I’ve been spending a not insignificant amount of time thinking about myself.

I’m in the midst of writing a long series of long posts for my personal blog on journalism with relationship to New Media, and I’m currently working on the subject of micro-blogging, and its role in the new and evolving ecosystem of for-profit online journalism.

That’s why I’ve paid special attention to blog posts like the one Hematopoiesis put out this evening that say stuff like “FriendFeed is killing blogging.” Duncan Riley disagreed that what Hematopoiesis argued was the case. I can see merits to both sides, and if you widen up the lens you look at the question with, you can see definite merit in both sides, plus some very interesting context. (Full Article)

Lately a lot of people mostly adolescent kids from the Philippines especially from Manila have discovered that they could smoke dried eggplant leaves just like marijuana and gets the same effect for a lot lesser price sometimes even free, since these are backyard plants that is commonly available in every home. I think this is again another direct result of poverty. These people that hang on to this are hardly getting by with their daily family needs and with this their problems goes away even if its temporary. Watch Video.

Apart from the national flag, Kenya is yet to have a national dress that cuts across its diverse ethnic divide. With each of the more than 42 ethnic communities in Kenya having its own traditional practices and symbols that make it unique, this is a task that has proved elusive in the past. However, several attempts have been made to design an outfit that can be worn to identify Kenyans, much like the Kente' cloth of Ghana.

The most recent effort was the Unilever-sponsored "Sunlight quest for Kenya's National Dress". A design was chosen and though it was unveiled with much pomp at a ceremony in which public figures modelled the dress, the dress design never took hold with the ordinary people.

Kitenge, a cotton fabric made into various colours and design through tie-and-dye and heavy embroidery, is generally accepted as the African dress. Though used in many African countries, Kitenge is yet to be accepted as an official dress as it is only worn during ceremonies and non-official functions. The Maasai wear dark red garments to symbolise their love for the earth and also their dependence on it. It also stands for courage and blood that is given to them by nature. The Kanga (Khanga, Lesso) is another cloth that is in common use in practically every Kenyan home. The Kanga is a piece of clothing about 1.5 m by 1 m, screen printed with beautiful sayings in Swahili (or English) and is largely worn by women around the waist and torso. Kangas are a flexible item, used in many ways such as aprons, child-carrying slings, picnic blankets, swimwear etc. However, except among the coastal people, it is usually not worn as a full outfit.

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I hope that someday elections in the Philippines will lean more to its people that vote rights and people's voices are the driving forces of putting somebody to the position that will deliver the change that will bring the country out of its poverty and put people first.

I just learned something today. I've always thought that Philippines have been heavily influenced by Spain for being under their umbrella for 300 years. A mixed culture thrown being under Japan for about 3years and trading with China. The shocking part to me is that in the Philippines, people who ate with their fingers (which is very common) were more likely influenced not by Spain or Japan or even China but by the culture of India.

I think I have the most unique name, a name I have been using on a lot of internet based accounts and email addresses and most importantly as my nickname. The name is ONEDEC spelled backwards of Cedeno. I think I should copyright this. I am thinking that when I make a my own brand or company this will be the name. I have thought of a logo and how to market the name already. Watch for it.

My company had been laying off employees for two months now. The company is targetting to cut down 10 percent of its workforce which means 300 people in Michigan alone. I just moved to this company last October and everyday I am worried that I will be the next one. Its a mixed feeling of fear and confidence since I am very good at what I do. But like what they say nobody is indispensable nowadays. It really depends on the company's goals and position in the industry. I am hoping of staying with the company for a while but maybe it wasnt really a good idea to move to this company in the first place. It is just not healthy to me and my family anymore physically, emotionally and most especially the effect of this to my profession. I need to start looking for an alternative just like everyone else.

I went to my first baseball game tonight with Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians. Not the greatest teams to watch but I was excited to go. We were on a very good seats on one of the suites of the stadium but to be honest I did not enjoy it at all. I thought it was a boring thing to watch. I never liked baseball maybe that's why. From now on the only time I will be watching baseball will be on TV.

The Beijing Olympics ended with a blaze of deafening fireworks, bringing down the curtain on a Games that dazzled the world with sporting brilliance and showcased the might of modern day China. 43 world records and 132 Olympic records were broken in China. (Continued)

What is it with Filipinos that could not compete and qualify with the most popular and most common sports available in the country. Track and Field, Cycling, BMX, Badminton, and so many ball games just to name a few. Philippines is surrounded by water and nobody knows any water sports that the Olympics would qualify, that's just ironic. Philippines, a couple of times on the other hand would send somebody to play Fencing (well its probably a sport that we play a lot in school that's why Filipinos are very good at it). And to add to this argument Richard Gomez (country's famous actor) was sent to compete. I guess he started playing the sport when he was at least 10 years old, that's why he is really good at it (lol).

Budget is not an excuse here since these are not expensive sports.

This is just mind boggling.

Many plants produce latex, which oozes from cuts and injuries as a milky sap. Special cells called laticifers produce latex. In general, latexes have a biological function in herbivore defense and/or laticifers are a dumping ground for metabolic by-products or reservoirs of biosynthetic materials. All latexes are emulsions, aqueous suspensions of insoluble materials which can include alkaloids, terpenes, resins, phenolics, proteins, sugars, and long-chain hydrocarbons. Not all latexes are elastic; those that are contain long-chain hydrocarbons. Some latexes are collected for their resins or their alkaloids (opium).

Rubber is a coagulated, elastic latex. Plants that produce elastic latexes are largely neotropical. Commercial rubber is produced from latex of Hevea brasiliensis. The water proofing and elastic properties (rubber balls) of various rubber producing plants were discovered by native American cultures, the Aztecs or earlier mesoamericans, and South American tribes.

Orginially collected from wild trees in South America, now 90% of rubber production comes from plantations of rubber trees in Southeast Asia.