“Gloria Resign” Calls Intensifying: Edsa 4?

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(Continued from “Gloria Resign?”)

Gloria not resigning. Recent history continues to repeat itself in the Philippines: an embattled president dogged by scandal and corruption now faces — and refuses — intensifying calls to resign, with various opposition factions now massing in the streets to protest her defiance. She now faces impeachment, which, like the last impeachment, will prove to be more of a political than a factual exercise.

The way it’s going, however, it looks like the mob organizers aren’t even going to give Gloria the time that Edsa II gave Erap: they want her out now. The problem is, if you’re indignant with Gloria for her presidential indiscretions (as I am), and if you really want her out now, look at the people you’ll have to march alongside at Edsa-Timog and Ayala Avenue: Jinggoy and JV, Imee Marcos, far-left socialist groups like Akbayan, Ronald Lumbao. It’s no less distasteful associating with them than it is with the current incumbency.

From other Filipino news sources and weblogs:

Is it to be EDSA 4, then? The way this is going, they should probably institutionalize EDSA rallies as the established Constitutional mode of presidential transition. That way, they can have biennial marches in the streets to force the incumbent president to resign, then install the vice president, or whomever the revolutionaries are clamoring for at any given moment. Advantages: it’s perfectly in keeping with the Filipino “fiesta” spirit, and you won’t even need a COMELEC anymore, just a cleanup crew to pick up the mess on EDSA the next day. Someone pass a bill, and make that the aim of the next Con-Con!

Update: “The meter stopped running.” Heh heh.

Explosions in London

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Terror attacks in London. So far, three Underground trains and a bus have been bombed. It looks like BBC’s being very conservative with the casualty count, and is wisely avoiding the flurry of rumors which always follows an incident such as this. And speaking of rumors, a heretofore unkonwn Al Qaeda group has claimed responsibility.

Londoners, take care. More linkage as the news develops:

Reopened Washington Monument Grounds

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One more thing I did last Monday: As a followup to this, I checked out the reopened Washington Monument area.

The layout of the grounds is much improved over the somewhat haphazard arrangement of asphalt walkways that previously overlaid the area. A circumferential path, bordered on its inward side by the security wall, circles the foot of the hill, with curved paths ascending obliquely through the wall to the Monument, forming an overlapped figure-8 when seen from above. The plaza around the Monument itself — still fenced off to the public when I checked — is no longer paved with asphalt, but with much classier granite, and the standard short wooden benches have been replaced with long, white marble benches. Hopefully it’ll still be skate-friendly.

Here are a few panoramic photos: (Click the thumbs for the Flickr pages, and click ALL SIZES to see the full size panoramas)

(By the way, I do not recommend rollerblading around Washington, DC on the Fourth of July. It’s never a good idea to be on unsteady wheels on bumpy roads in a spot where about half a million tourists are converging. I passed through five different checkpoints and ran into any number of fences and Jersey barriers blocking my regular skating routes. If I’m still in DC next Fourth of July, I’m retreating to the peace of the Rock Creek Park forest trails.)

Update, 07/06/2005: I’ve just jogged down there and back, and the Monument plaza is now open. It’s a much wider circle around the base than it was before, and the new marble benches are great. Much more grandiose, but still friendly to tourists, bikers, and skaters. No pictures right now, though; I don’t normally bring my camera when I run.

Happy Fourth

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Happy Fourth!

My neighbor Scott very nicely shared his Fourth of July tickets to the Department of Labor roofdeck with a few of the neighbors, myself included. The conversation was engaging, the view was grand, the cannons were loud, and the fireworks were fabulous. Click the photos to see them full size:

(View from Department of Labor Roofdeck uploaded by brownpau.)

(Fireworks uploaded by brownpau.)

(Fireworks uploaded by brownpau.)

Full photoset of today’s Fourth of July here.

Deep Impact: A Smashing Success

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(Get it? “Smashing” Success? Ha ha! I made funny!) Since my ranting about Da Vinci Code and Western Union have bumped down the good astronomy material, here’s the latest stuff on the Deep Impact comet mission:

Congrats to the JPL team for another successful mission. Enjoy the hard planetary science coming out of Deep Impact now, and may the Funding be with you.

This Isn’t the Da Vinci Code You’re Looking For

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I can understand the point of view of people who think “Da Vinci Code” is a good read, though I didn’t think it was one myself. (I felt like I was reading the solution to a puzzle-based video game, with chapter breaks before each boss level.) I can also understand people who are skeptical about certain areas of Roman Catholicism — as a Protestant, I’m a skeptic myself, though not for the reasons put forward by the “Da Vinci Code’s” sources.

But when people start defending “Da Vinci Code” as though they actually believe in it, then tell me that my “attacks” on their beloved book and its sources are merely driven by blind faith, despite my own references to secular and skeptical historians and researchers; well, I have to view them with the same skepticism and amusement I usually reserve for people who tell me that tourists’ kidneys are being stolen in hotels. That’s about the same level of credibility I give to the book’s laughable conspiracy driven plot about the church covering up a bizarre femino-pagan Magdalenic cult, despite rational history’s evidence to the contrary.

Da Vinci Code is to art and church history what the movie Armageddon was to astronomy. If Dan Brown does anything well, it’s absurdity well packaged. This is all material I’ve covered before, but experience has shown that the general public isn’t exactly into real research, and that’s nothing new. Moon landing hoax theories, apparitions of Mary, UFO’s, Jews did WTC, psychic healers, The Da Vinci Code, Left Behind, astrology — history has shown that the general population tends not to exercise critical thought on many things. It’s like watching one Jedi Mind Trick after another, sweeping over the populace with short-lived enchantment.

But then, I often have to include myself in that, I must admit. In other spots where I haven’t done my reading, I’m at the mass media and information market’s mercies, and who has the time to read up on everything? And of course, every argument I make can also be made against my own religion, which makes leaps past rationality full-on into faith. So I shouldn’t judge society too harshly, lest I start sounding like one of those condescending “free thinkers.” It’s something that’s more enjoyable to watch with fascination rather than confront with patronization.

Western Union

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I needed to send some money back to the Philippines. So I tried Western Union.

First, they charge me $27 to send $110 to Manila. Then, at the end of a tedious form, they tell me that it cannot accept the money transfer till I call their support number and talk to an operator. They give me a 10-digit “control number” without spaces or hyphens. I call the number, enter the number, and wait. After twenty minutes of elevator music from Western Union and much cursing from me, I get a message saying they cannot accept my call, please try again in fifteen minutes. So fifteen minutes later, I try again, and must wait another ten minutes. I surprise myself with my calmness as I tell the operator who answers, “This is not the service I was expecting. I’ve been charged too much to wait too long. Please cancel this transfer, and delete my account.”

Screw Western Union. What other US-Philippines money transfer alternatives are there, while Paypal Philippines has yet to materialize? I’m looking in Xoom’s direction based on Yuga’s experiences.

The Impactor Hits

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Happy Fourth of July! The impactor has hit Comet Tempel 1. Here are a couple of initial fuzzy screenshots from my rather jaggy NASA TV feed:

The left photo is from the flyby craft mere seconds after impact, and the right photo is from the impactor craft just minutes before it hit. Here are better images from SpaceflightNow.

Now, the flyby craft is in “shield mode” as it passes through the comet’s coma, facing its cameras away from the blast of icy particles surrounding the comet nucleus. After it gets past that, it turns towards ground zero on the comet surface and gets the highest resolution photos of the impact yet. So far, the JPL people are saying that the impact is coming out bigger and brighter than any of them expected.

More links:

The Impactor Approaches

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Impactor Away! NASA/JPL’s Deep Impact has released its impactor spacecraft towards comet Tempel 1. At this moment the impactor is mere minutes from impact, and has just finished the last of three adjustment maneuvers to ensure it strikes the comet. I’m watching NASA TV’s live feed right now, and checking the latest raw imagery from the spacecraft.

If the urban light pollution weren’t so bad over DC, I’d go outside and try to locate the comet, but the internet is giving me a decent secondhand experience.

Fourth of July Napkins

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(mo_155_.jpg uploaded by brownpau.)

4th of July napkins with the American flag, the Statue of Liberty, and the Declaration of Independence. Wipe your mouth with freedom!