More eco-friendly cars please

by: Carol Deang (3rd entry)

I came across a report saying that chicken feathers may fuel hydrogen cars in the future.

Chickens may start losing sleep over more than Americans’ love of McNuggets. Chicken consumption in the US creates over six billion pounds of feathers each year. Previously discarded as waste, researchers at the University of Delaware are developing an innovative way to put all that wasted plumage to use — as fuel to power hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. If this technology was implemented in a fuel cell vehicle, it would cost about $200, as opposed to using carbon nanotube tanks (which cost about $5.5 million) or metal hydrides (which cost about $30,000). (by Sara H Parsons)

Amusing but actually a serious issue.

In a third-world country as the Philippines, I believe that we have a lot more at stake than the rich and developed countries in developing alternatives to fuel-generated cars. Richer countries can definitely outbid poorer countries for scarce fuels. Moreover, with the global concern for the environment, Philippines have to be able to develop sustainable and cheaper workable transportation that does not involve burning fossil fuels. Examples are hydrogen vehicles such as those to be fuelled by the chickens, electric vehicles which entail charging of batteries like cellphones and laptops or the natural gas vehicles. While some efforts have already been introduced in our country such as the launching of the E-Jeepneys in Makati, a lot still have to be done, obviously. The Government, in the long run, should at least promote alternatives to fuel-generated cars. Though, I doubt that these alternatives are available on a commercial scale here already. Several factors deter their mass production including efficiency, cost and safety.

But, I am hoping that the Philippines and the whole world will reach that point where only ecology-friendly vehicles run the streets.

Sources: http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/06/25/chicken-feathers-may-fuel-hydrogen-cars-in-the-future/?=rssfeed

http://jalopnik.com/5336586/stingray-concept-transformers-corvette-a-high+tech-hybrid-super-car

Infinitesimal.

by desmayoralgo (entry #3)

http://xkcd.com/482/ [I invite you to click on this link to get a full view of the strip]

We talk about how knowlege is expanding and how the information available right at our fingertips is so massive that we couldn't even start to comprehend the enormity of its awesomeness. But there is so much out there that has not been explored, so much out there that hasn't been seen. But are we getting close to seeing it all? How long until outer space is no longer res communis and belongs to the descendants of Barack Obama?

Until then, we are infinitesimal.

An Online Official Gazette

Article 2 of the Civil Code states that "Laws shall take effect after fifteen days following the completion of their publication either in the Official Gazette, or in a newspaper of general circulation in the Philippines, unless it is otherwise provided."

As any law student will know, this article has been interpreted by the Supreme Court to mean that all laws, regardless of their stated effectivity date, need to be published first before they take effect. Absent publication, there is no law to speak of. So even if the law states that it is "effective immediately upon approval", it is in truth not effective until after fifteen (15) days from publication.

I have nothing against the requirement of publication. This, after all, is the requirement of due process. It is but logical to contend that the law should first be known before one can be expected to follow it.

My criticism is with respect to the media or medium that the law requires to be used in publication. I think it is about time for the legislature to amend Article 2 of the Civil Code to require laws (and all those enumerated in the Tanada vs. Tuvera case) to be published or posted online.

After all, if the purpose of the publication requirement is to inform the public about the new law, then wouldn't this be better served if we just require them to be posted in one (1) government website, where anyone can access it for free? An online official gazette, if you will.

I have seen many laws published in newspapers one can hardly consider as being "widely read". Local Ordinances, for example, are rarely found published in leading newspapers. And not everyone has access to copies of the Official Gazette (I bet most Filipinos haven't even heard of the Official Gazette).

It is only by providing a way for the public to really know about new laws, rules and regulations, can courts truly invoke and apply the maxim ignorantia legis neminem excusat.

It is unfair for everyone to be presumed to know the law when copies of the law themselves are not  made readily or easily available. Government should use the internet to their advantage and create a website that contains all laws in force in the Philippines.

Aaron Jarveen Ho

3rd Entry

Image from:

http://www.gov.ph/templates/rhuk_solarflare_ii/images/header_short.jpg

Of Lawyers and the Internet

For the past few months, my batchmates and I have been doing our internship in the University of the Philippines Office of Legal Aid ("UP OLA"). We have been doing our fair share of lawyerly work. It's a taste of what is to come after we graduate and get our licenses, and what is really notable is that some of us like doing things for UP OLA, while some do not.

In any case, if there be no internet, and for that matter the technology we have now, things would probably be worse and many more would detest doing such internship. Well, "detest" is a strong word, but the context should be considered - the last semester before graduation is not cake walk, and as there are currently "issues" affecting everyone (probably better discussed in another blog), doing internship in UP OLA is not as fun nor enjoyable as it should be.

In all my years in law school, I have been with various professors, who are different in their own ways. Some professors are not as young as the others, and they provide us good insight on what was the process of the courts and even their law offices during their time. We usually got the impression that things were really hard back then, considering that pleadings to be filed to courts are to be typewritten, and an error in an allegation or probably a typo means (1) scrapping the whole pleading and (2) retyping everything from the beginning. I also consider the stamina needed for using a typewriter as compared to a desktop or a laptop.

I think about the scenario and try imagining myself being in that situation, and I cannot help but cringe. The general scenario when a law student is doing internship in UP OLA is that all pleadings are first to be emailed to the supervising lawyer, and the supervising lawyer usually returns it with the revisions, suggested additions, and other relevant points pertinent to the pleading. The intern then revises it, and returns it to the supervising lawyer for final checking, unless the said supervising lawyer says that the corrections are so minute that the pleading could be filed after the errors are corrected. Some corrections, however, are so major that this process of sending, returning and revising takes a few tries.

The internet and technology definitely made the lives of lawyers easier, and as UP OLA has shown me, even of law interns (even though emails are sent to the yahoo group, to be seen by everyone). The communication between lawyers in the same law firm definitely became easier. The scenario is the same in UP OLA, as the communication is through email. In fact, while I was drafting a major petition, my supervising lawyer was still the one who checked the final draft, even though she was abroad. Deadlines are also more easily complied with, because printing five copies of a ten-page pleading can be done in a matter of seconds, while typing each copy would take a few hours. Also, if there are revisions, then such could be changed in a matter of minutes, unlike that of a typewritten pleading, which needs to be revised for a few hours depending on the volume of the revisions.

Of course, the internet did not completely change lawyering for the better. As I have been hearing from upper-batch friends who are now lawyers, as more work could be done today by one individual in less time, more cases are allotted to that individual. This causes a lawyer to burnout more easily. In addition, being in front of a laptop poses a lot of distractions, especially when it is DSL. May it be catching-up on a favorite show, chatting, online gaming, facebook, or even pornography, a lawyer could easily digress from what he or she is doing because of all the temptation that the internet brings. In another point of view, the internet opens the doors to information on relevant laws, and as the lawyers get consumed with the information he or she needs to digest and use in his or her pleading, he or she allots more time to work and less on other activities which are also beneficial for a healthy and happy life. It makes him or her less social, and closes the possibility for more physical activities. Finally, as is addressed by the first cartoon of this blog, some lawyers become overly dependent on the technology in his grasp, when such information could be recovered faster if he or she has just studied well; some lawyers now do not study as well because he or she knows that the information could be recovered through just a few clicks.

In any case, the internet still is a more advantageous tool for a lawyer. However, the tool is only as good as the person who wields its, and therefore the capacity to use the internet in an advantageous manner is still dependent on that lawyer's methodologies and discipline.


Cartoons from:

http://www.emsnetwork.com/cartoons/Drawings/cartoon_14.jpg
http://lib.law.washington.edu/announce/nlw08/email.gif
http://www.courtoons.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/cartoonist.jpg
http://www.glasbergen.com/images/tc8.gif

"Huli sa Balita"? Medyo lang naman.

A few days ago, an anti-WTO demonstration took place in Geneva, Switzerland. I don’t know if they showed it on the local news (they probably did), but my mom told me it was shown on CNN and all the other international news channels. I can’t seem to recall what in the world I was doing that day that I missed seeing the news, but I found out about it the next day through facebook.

A friend of mine uploaded some pictures of the demonstration, and I have to say, it was shockingly violent – shop windows were smashed, cars lit on fire, smoke bombs tossed around. Armored cars were even parked along the streets. I emailed another friend, asking about what happened, and he told me that an anarchist group had infiltrated the demonstrations and starting smashing things up. He said something similar had happened back in 2005 during the G8 summit in Evian (which I always thought was just a brand of particularly expensive bottled water).




As shocked as I was, though – and I must say, I was very shocked. I mean, Switzerland? The neutral country which only, I was told, had one general in its entire history, where you could walk around alone at night and be almost totally safe? – I have to admit that I was also a bit amused. To be able to use such terms as ‘anarchist group’ and ‘infiltrate’ when describing a ‘demonstration’... well, that’s just not something very common, at least for us living here. Rallies could almost be classified as common occurrences here, and burning things in effigy is definitely not out of the ordinary. Anarchist groups don’t need to infiltrate any demonstrations in order for things to get violent – just this afternoon things got violent at the Asian Center next to UP Law. I was told that the police were a bit... (ahem) overenthusiastic... and hurt some students, which is why OLA Team 6 was sent to check things out.

Thinking about all this brings to mind the joke people tell about how in the Philippines the police are there even before crimes occur. It makes us laugh, but when you think about it, it’s really... well, sad.


[end, blog no. 3; pictures were taken by Raymund Flores]

Rail Bus System?!

by Melissa Sicat (3rd entry)

Yesterday, I just received a very overwhelming task from Prof. Antonio Oposa in our Law and Environment class. He assigned me to form a team to design a Rail Bus System that will minimize pollution and will utilize the less amount of energy to transport the most number of passengers. To make it even more overwhelming, he said he will be presenting our design as a proposal to the Department of Transportation and other concerned authorities. It all started with this dialogue during our class:

Prof. Oposa: “Mel, marunong ka bang mag-drawing?”
Me: “Sir, hindi po masyado”
Prof. Oposa: “Ok, you’ll be the one to design the Rail Bus System. Next week, you’ll make a presentation to the whole class”

Actually, I was not the first choice. It was my blockmate, Kiyo. But since he was absent on the third meeting, sir assigned me instead (moral lesson: don’t wear large name tags). I think sir already has a clear-cut plan/ vision of the project. He said that in order to avoid combustion power wastage (which happens with the use of automobiles), it will be better if we would utilize railroad tracks using natural gas as fuel. Sir asked me to consult with the best minds in the College of Engineering and School of Urban and Regional Planning to realize this idea. I have yet to set an appointment with them.

As regards the design, the Rail Bus will be double decker in order to maximize space. Since I am also a part of another project headed by another classmate, Tito Romy (his project was to effect a carless UP acad oval for a certain period of time), he came up with the idea that we could collaborate maybe and implement the Rail Bus System in the UP Campus first as a test site (I wonder how that will look).

Another classmate, Jansen also came up with a good idea. The idea was to replicate the design of a rollercoaster, i.e., there will be sharply inclined tracks (even loops) so that energy will just be initially used only to climb the inclined tracks, and everything will be left to gravity in order to run the bus. That actually sounds fun and promising, but then again, we’re law majors, not engineers.

Therefore, after a night of envisioning the Rail Bus System, perhaps our project will look something like this:

(ours will be double decker, though)

Running over something like this:

With certain bus tracks looking like this (haha):

Come to think of it, Prof. Oposa said transportation should be fun

Perhaps the biggest obstacle in making this project into reality is the oil/ gasoline suppliers sector, as the main objective is to promote rail bus commuting and mass transport system using natural gas or other natural source of energy (instead of private vehicle transportation). Also, it will take a lot of policy implementation (read: traffic rules/regulations) on the part of the government in order to push this advocacy.

Obviously, our government would also have to pour more budget into the R&D sector in order to fine tune this project as this concerns not only the environment but also the safety of passengers, its effect on businesses, tourism, etc. Our government could focus on developing renewable energy potential such as solar, ocean, biomass and wind resources (aside from natural gas). To install this mass transportation system, perhaps the enactment of a sound and efficient national land use plan shall be done, consulting the best minds in the engineering and science &technology sector.

I just hope my nose won’t bleed when I start talking with the best minds from Engineering.

Images derived from:
http://www.dvmg.com/portfol/rail_bus.jpg
http://www.ltv-vwc.org.uk/wheelspin/ws_feb_2001/vw-railbus-front.jpg
http://mycocaine.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/roller-coaster-one.jpg

Kids Nowadays...

“Hay, ang kabataan nga naman ngayon!” You’ve probably heard this line from your old folks who are in disbelief how different things are today compared to the old times.

Take for example my five-year old nephew.
At age 1, he was a normal kid playing with his toys.
At age 2, he was hooked with Barney and Dora DVDs.
At age 3, he had his Gameboy.
At age 4, he discovered PSP.
At age 5, he is into online games.

I wouldn’t be surprised if he’ll have his own Facebook account in a year or two! (He actually knows how to Google now).

I don’t know if it’s a good or a tragic thing that kids nowadays are living in a virtual world. The times when patintero and sipa were fun and meeting other kids in the neighborhood was such a thrill seem so long ago (I actually picture the images in sepia hehe)

The world we’re now living in is indeed such a convenient world, though at times, I wish to go back to the old days when life was simpler.

“Hay, ang kabataan nga naman ngayon!” I can’t believe I am saying this now.. and just to be clear: I am not yet old! :D

- Glaisa PO
3rd entry