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MANILA: Man of the Hour is President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines. He has, more or less, declared a War on Drugs and on all his critics, including foreign diplomats, dignitaries and heads. Is he a Master of The New Art of War? Mag of the Hour is my  Danggay,  my new magazine. I must be a Master of the New Art of War with Words. The word danggay is Ilocano that means  complement  (verb & noun) and  complementary  (adjective). An act that complements another act. Since my mag is dedicated to complementing the Duterte administration in matters of science for development, and since I am the Editor in Chief, I'm inventing a new word and a new public-relations phrase:  Complements of the Chief. Now then, what do you make of the latest chaotic developments in the country under Duterte? (1)  That Duterte has declared a State of Lawlessness all over the Philippines. To consider that more cerebrally, I am going to use what I have called Frank A Hi...

MANILA: I am a registered member of LinkedIn, and I have just received on 21 September 2016 an email that says, "Frank: Texas Instruments, Viventis Search Asia, and NetSuite Inc. are looking for candidates like you." And underneath that email subject is this: "10 jobs that match your preferences" I logged in and got interested in the need of IRRI for a "Proposal Specialist" (as posted by Brian Carlo Hipolito). I clicked on "Apply on company website," and here I am, at irri.org reading the whole package. I'm smiling because I know IRRI and I also know that I am way beyond retirement age, having just celebrated my 76th birthday less than a week before today. So I'm out of the question, but since I'm in the mood for light, if not love, and the Closing Date for application is 07 October 2016 yet, a good 2 weeks from now, let me indulge in a bit of speculation. The exact position called for by IRRI is "Senior Officer – Proposal Develo...

MANILA: How do you make sense of it? That's the title of my photograph above, which I have posterized. That question also refers to the Senate imbroglio involving 3 Senators: Alan Peter Cayetano, Antonio Trillanes, and Leila De Lima. How do we find beauty in that? First, the background, where we should be coming from. So I uploaded my new book to the world on my birthday, Facebook Love Science Truth , free for the asking (for my email, see my essay, "The Truth Is Out There, Mr Duterte. (It's Also In My New Book)" that you will find in Primate Change , blogspot.co.id . Then I decided to create the new blog Facebook Love Science Truth dedicated to the book ( blogspot.co.id ). Then I published a new essay in that blog, "Love Science Truth – Where Is Beauty In All That?" (18 September 2016, blogspot.co.id ). That was not rhetorical. I found beauty in all that; I was very happy. Then, very early this morning, at a little after 0200 hours, 19 September 2016, I re...

MANILA: Today, a little after 0400 hours Saturday, 17 September 2016, I released to the world my book Facebook Love Science Truth , all 600-plus pages of it, in portable document format (pdf), as my birthday gift to the world of the Filipinos here and abroad, your pdf copy sent free if you email me, frankahilario@gmail.com . It is a collection of my writings published in the blog Primate Change ( blogspot.co.id ) from the 1st day of January to the last day of August 2016. I just know that the book Facebook LST will open gates and doors closed to love, science and the truth – via Facebook. After all, Facebook says, "The Facebook Page celebrates how our friends inspire us, support us, and help us discover the world when we connect" ( facebook.com ). How do you connect Love, Science and the Truth? That calls for extraordinary creative thinking. ( No, it's not exclusive to Frank A Hilario. Extreme creative thinking leading to creative writing is a cultivated talent that you ...

MANILA: Particularly in the Philippines, at these times when socially The Truth seems to be The Victim of Violence, you can find assurance of level-headedness in my new book,  Facebook Love Science Truth , subtitled  For Love, For Science, For Country.  I subscribe to the idea that The Truth is worth nothing if it does not serve a social good. Why should you read Frank A Hilario? Because he is a damn good writer, and he loves his country. And the book is  free ; you can email me for your complimentary pdf copy,  frankahilario@gmail.com . Today is my birthday; the book is my birthday gift to the Filipino people wherever they are. Because I know it is more blessed to give than to receive. You are looking at the cover of my book .  Why is  Facebook  in the title, in fact the very first word? Because Facebook invites friendships, connections, and discoveries. With Love, through Facebook we can explore how Science and Truth can serve our beloved nation...

MANILA:  Note: I am a Filipino, a full-blooded Ilocano from Eastern Pangasinan in Central Luzon in the Philippines. I am 76, and I have a senior’s grudge over a junior mentality like that of Ms Ilda who has given her unforgiving opinion, “Duterte wants Filipinos to eliminate their colonial mentality” (10 September 2016,  getrealphilippines.com ). She doesn’t even have the guts to give her full name. This is my birth month, and I vowed last month not to write for the first 17 days of September but, for God’s sake, she made me do it. To begin with, Ms Ilda, where are you coming from? Either those who don’t speak American English well (I don’t), or those who don’t write it well, are the ones who are ashamed of their colonial mentality. I am not. I am rather very proud of it. The single person I love the most when it comes to imagination and innovation is American: Steve Jobs. Where is your imagination, Ms Ilda? Yours is both an excoriation and an excuse. It is made up of logical ...

MANILA: I title my photograph now  Point of Diminishing Returns . The above posterized image is from an original taken by me on 28 November 2015 at a roughly cemented hotel ground in Bolinao, Pangasinan where we stayed to finish our consultancy report for the extension project  Agrarian Reform Community Connectivity & Extension Support Services  (ARCCESS) of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR). We were UMIC consultants of ARCCESS, and if we did not prepare completely satisfactory reports, DAR might look at them as points of diminishing returns for our 2 teams. I did not record the name of the object but, after that shot, it would be a point of diminishing returns for it in terms of attention, and then it would be thrown into the garbage can. Now that there is a new head of the DAR, will ARCCESS be thrown into the waste basket? I will miss those opportunities to talk to the farmers about unexplored territories (theirs) that I have already explored in my mind. What ...