Sunday, December 30, 2007
Multimedia message
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Friday, December 28, 2007
Multimedia message
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Monday, December 24, 2007
Friday, December 21, 2007
Ditto this story--the other end of the spectrum, as it were.
In Internet age, postman gives job relevance, a heart
By TJ Burgonio
Inquirer
First Posted 11:58pm (Mla time) 10/07/2007
MANILA, Philippines--DESPITE his name, he is no potato patch mailman.
Floro "Pol" Camote is a modern-day postman who continues to make his job relevant in the age of the Internet.
Camote, a letter-carrier of the Quezon City Central Post Office, enters seedy slums peopled by pickpockets and robbers, and puts up with threats from thugs just to bring letters, checks and bills to the residents.
"I don't want to go back to our office with my bag half-full with undelivered mail," says Camote, 47, in an interview Friday night.
200 households same address
The dedicated mailman has taken an extra step: He has given names (including his own) to streets and assigned numbers to homes in overcrowded communities where, say 200 households have the same mailing address.
That initiative has won him praises from the public, and awards from the Quezon City Post Office, the Philippine Postal Corp. (PhilPost) and recently, from the Civil Service Commission (CSC).
Camote, together with a slain assistant solicitor general, a jail warden, a school superintendent, a forester, and an auditing examiner, each received the Dangal ng Bayan Award at the Cultural Center of the Philippines last Sept. 18.
Trophy, cash, promotion
The award is given to individuals for performing an extraordinary act or service, and consistently demonstrating exemplary ethical behavior in accordance with the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees.
The award comes with a trophy designed by National Artist Napoleon Abueva, P100,000 cash bonus and a promotion.
Camote has been cited for his street-naming and house-numbering initiative (which he replicated wherever he was posted), his fierce promotion of PhilPost products and services, and his dedication to work.
The CSC describes him as a "modern-day" postman who continued to make his job relevant in the age of the Internet. "This kind of service can only come from a public servant who has the interest of many at heart."
Mind-boggling
After years of doing odd jobs in Manila, Camote, a high school graduate, was hired in 1994 by his neighbor, Eduardo Alcoy, to work at the Quezon City letter carrier section at City Hall.
In his first few weeks of delivering mail to Barangay Holy Spirit, a sprawling, crowded village behind the Batasang Pambansa complex in Quezon City, he was shocked to find that the houses did not have numbers.
"Delivering mail was mind-boggling," recalls Camote. He proposed a scheme to number the houses but many "turf-conscious" residents put their foot down.
"Some were riled by the idea that their neighbors' homes would be numbered first, when they had settled ahead of them. They finally agreed after I explained that this was for their own good," he says.
For the next three weeks, he went from house to house, writing down numbers on doors with a marker pen. Some residents were so amazed by his idea, they offered to name an extension of a street after him, but he refused.
Good idea
In his next assignment in Bago Bantay, Quezon City, Camote encountered the same problem.
"The letter carriers feared going into this territory so they would leave their bag of mail at the store. The snatchers, the pickpockets, they're all over the place. In my first forays, somebody sneaked up and snatched a letter. Another brandished a knife at me. But I was never harmed," he says.
He noticed that most of the letters left at the store remained uncollected. Camote again proposed his scheme. With the help of barangay officials, he was able to convince residents to allow him to write numbers on their doors.
Camote, his chief and his colleagues introduced the same system in Barangay Pagasa, which is another community of informal settlers across the Philippine Science High School on Agham Road.
Here, they named some streets after themselves. They were able to deliver mail efficiently which ended the practice of some residents who delivered mail for a fee.
Camote Street
"The day we got mail addressed to Camote Street, I got so excited I delivered the mail myself," the letter-carrier says, chuckling.
By doing his job, Camote, who is married with three children, believes he is able to impart the value of "accepting letters."
"One time I delivered a subpoena, but this guy rejected it. I warned him that after rejecting it thrice, he'd get a warrant. I never saw him for a month. The next time I bumped into him, he told me he should have heeded my advice. It turned out he was jailed for a month for robbery and hold-up," he says.
Close ties
To this day, Camote motors to Bago Bantay to deliver mail between 10 a.m. and 12 noon. In the afternoon, he wears the cap of a liaison officer, and delivers documents to the central post office in Manila.
He used to report for work even on weekends to deliver mail.
Despite his meager income, he doesn't see himself changing jobs in the next 10 years in spite of the Internet and the popularity of e-mail.
"Nothing beats letters. When you read letters, you feel the emotions," he says. "In a letter, you can write everything you feel and it doesn't cost much. It's just a little slow."
After 13 years of delivering snail mail, Camote has established close ties with the community and is treated like one of the family.
Winning song
He is invited to lunch after delivering an important letter from abroad. He even gets presents during the holiday season. Some of the residents are so close to him, they ask him to mail their letters.
"I enjoy my job so much. I've never felt this way in my previous jobs," says Camote, who composed "Buhay Kartero," an inspirational song about a mailman's dedication to his work.
He performs the song and other compositions with Heber Bartolome's Banyuhay every Tuesday night at the Conspiracy Bar in Quezon City.
"I think I won the award (Dangal ng Bayan) because of that song," he says referring to "Buhay Kartero" which won for him a prize from PhilPost a few years ago. "It captures the noble spirit of a mailman who risks life and limb to do his job."
By TJ Burgonio
Inquirer
First Posted 11:58pm (Mla time) 10/07/2007
MANILA, Philippines--DESPITE his name, he is no potato patch mailman.
Floro "Pol" Camote is a modern-day postman who continues to make his job relevant in the age of the Internet.
Camote, a letter-carrier of the Quezon City Central Post Office, enters seedy slums peopled by pickpockets and robbers, and puts up with threats from thugs just to bring letters, checks and bills to the residents.
"I don't want to go back to our office with my bag half-full with undelivered mail," says Camote, 47, in an interview Friday night.
200 households same address
The dedicated mailman has taken an extra step: He has given names (including his own) to streets and assigned numbers to homes in overcrowded communities where, say 200 households have the same mailing address.
That initiative has won him praises from the public, and awards from the Quezon City Post Office, the Philippine Postal Corp. (PhilPost) and recently, from the Civil Service Commission (CSC).
Camote, together with a slain assistant solicitor general, a jail warden, a school superintendent, a forester, and an auditing examiner, each received the Dangal ng Bayan Award at the Cultural Center of the Philippines last Sept. 18.
Trophy, cash, promotion
The award is given to individuals for performing an extraordinary act or service, and consistently demonstrating exemplary ethical behavior in accordance with the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees.
The award comes with a trophy designed by National Artist Napoleon Abueva, P100,000 cash bonus and a promotion.
Camote has been cited for his street-naming and house-numbering initiative (which he replicated wherever he was posted), his fierce promotion of PhilPost products and services, and his dedication to work.
The CSC describes him as a "modern-day" postman who continued to make his job relevant in the age of the Internet. "This kind of service can only come from a public servant who has the interest of many at heart."
Mind-boggling
After years of doing odd jobs in Manila, Camote, a high school graduate, was hired in 1994 by his neighbor, Eduardo Alcoy, to work at the Quezon City letter carrier section at City Hall.
In his first few weeks of delivering mail to Barangay Holy Spirit, a sprawling, crowded village behind the Batasang Pambansa complex in Quezon City, he was shocked to find that the houses did not have numbers.
"Delivering mail was mind-boggling," recalls Camote. He proposed a scheme to number the houses but many "turf-conscious" residents put their foot down.
"Some were riled by the idea that their neighbors' homes would be numbered first, when they had settled ahead of them. They finally agreed after I explained that this was for their own good," he says.
For the next three weeks, he went from house to house, writing down numbers on doors with a marker pen. Some residents were so amazed by his idea, they offered to name an extension of a street after him, but he refused.
Good idea
In his next assignment in Bago Bantay, Quezon City, Camote encountered the same problem.
"The letter carriers feared going into this territory so they would leave their bag of mail at the store. The snatchers, the pickpockets, they're all over the place. In my first forays, somebody sneaked up and snatched a letter. Another brandished a knife at me. But I was never harmed," he says.
He noticed that most of the letters left at the store remained uncollected. Camote again proposed his scheme. With the help of barangay officials, he was able to convince residents to allow him to write numbers on their doors.
Camote, his chief and his colleagues introduced the same system in Barangay Pagasa, which is another community of informal settlers across the Philippine Science High School on Agham Road.
Here, they named some streets after themselves. They were able to deliver mail efficiently which ended the practice of some residents who delivered mail for a fee.
Camote Street
"The day we got mail addressed to Camote Street, I got so excited I delivered the mail myself," the letter-carrier says, chuckling.
By doing his job, Camote, who is married with three children, believes he is able to impart the value of "accepting letters."
"One time I delivered a subpoena, but this guy rejected it. I warned him that after rejecting it thrice, he'd get a warrant. I never saw him for a month. The next time I bumped into him, he told me he should have heeded my advice. It turned out he was jailed for a month for robbery and hold-up," he says.
Close ties
To this day, Camote motors to Bago Bantay to deliver mail between 10 a.m. and 12 noon. In the afternoon, he wears the cap of a liaison officer, and delivers documents to the central post office in Manila.
He used to report for work even on weekends to deliver mail.
Despite his meager income, he doesn't see himself changing jobs in the next 10 years in spite of the Internet and the popularity of e-mail.
"Nothing beats letters. When you read letters, you feel the emotions," he says. "In a letter, you can write everything you feel and it doesn't cost much. It's just a little slow."
After 13 years of delivering snail mail, Camote has established close ties with the community and is treated like one of the family.
Winning song
He is invited to lunch after delivering an important letter from abroad. He even gets presents during the holiday season. Some of the residents are so close to him, they ask him to mail their letters.
"I enjoy my job so much. I've never felt this way in my previous jobs," says Camote, who composed "Buhay Kartero," an inspirational song about a mailman's dedication to his work.
He performs the song and other compositions with Heber Bartolome's Banyuhay every Tuesday night at the Conspiracy Bar in Quezon City.
"I think I won the award (Dangal ng Bayan) because of that song," he says referring to "Buhay Kartero" which won for him a prize from PhilPost a few years ago. "It captures the noble spirit of a mailman who risks life and limb to do his job."
I want to preserve this story here in case the link ever goes dead:
Friday, 24 August 2007, 18:14 GMT 19:14 UK
Great 'cosmic nothingness' found
VLA (NRAO/AUI)
The result comes from a sky survey by the VLA in New Mexico
'It's hard to picture'
Astronomers have found an enormous void in space that measures nearly a billion light-years across.
It is empty of both normal matter - such as galaxies and stars - and the mysterious "dark matter" that cannot be seen directly with telescopes.
The "hole" is located in the direction of the Eridanus constellation and has been identified in data from a survey of the sky made at radio wavelengths.
The discovery will be reported in a paper in the Astrophysical Journal.
Previous sky surveys that have traced the large-scale structure of the nearby Universe have long shown, for example, how the clustering of galaxies is strung into vast filaments and sheets that are separated by great gaps.
But the void discovered by a University of Minnesota team is about 1,000 times the volume of what would be expected in typical cosmic gaps.
"It's hard even for astronomers to picture how big these things are," conceded Minnesota's Professor Lawrence Rudnick.
"If you were to travel at the speed of light, it would take you several years to get to the nearest stars in our own Milky Way galaxy; but if you were to go to this hole and enter one side, you'd have to travel for a billion years before you would get to the other side," he told BBC News.
The void is roughly 6-10 billion light-years away and takes a sizeable chunk out of the visible Universe in its direction.
Dark evidence
The team used data from the US National Radio Astronomy Observatory's VLA Sky Survey (NVSS) to make its discovery. The VLA - which stands for Very Large Array - is a collection of 27 radio telescopes in New Mexico.
The finding is said to fit neatly with observations of the Universe's "oldest light" - the famous Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation, the study of which has earned several scientists the Nobel Prize.
This is the radiation that comes from just 380,000 years after the Big Bang when the Universe had cooled to such a degree that hydrogen atoms could exist. Before that time, scientists say, the Universe would have been so hot that matter and light would have been "coupled" - the cosmos would have been opaque.
THE CMB - OLD AND COLD
CMB (Rudnick et al., NRAO/AUI/NSF, NASA)
Nasa Probes have mapped the Cosmic Microwave Background which is all around us in space
This radiation from the infant Universe shines at weak radio (microwave) wavelengths
The maps show up tiny temperature fluctuations - the mottled colours above
These fluctuations correspond to the early distribution of matter in the fledgling cosmos
Nasa's WMap satellite sees a cold spot lying in the path of the newly found void
'Ancient light' takes Nobel
Today, this light shines at microwave wavelengths at a frigid -270C; and observations of the CMB made by Nasa's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe show a particular "cold spot" in the direction of the newly identified void.
The explanation for this may lie in the enigmatic "dark energy" that scientists know so little about but which is said to be accelerating the expansion of the Universe.
Light particles passing through the void would be expected to lose a little more energy than those passing through space cluttered with matter - if dark energy is stretching the Universe apart at a faster and faster rate.
Scientists refer to this as the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe Effect and a corresponding "warm spot" in the CMB associated with an area of space dominated by a supercluster of galaxies was identified some years ago.
"In essence, this latest study gives us a very elegant demonstration of the existence of dark energy in a way which is very convincing," commented Professor Carlos Frenk, the director of the Institute for Computational Cosmology at Durham University, UK.
"We keep getting evidence for dark energy, this component of the Universe which is so dominant, and yet we still have only a tiny glimmer of what it could be."
The reason the void exists is not known. "That's going to be a challenge for people that work on the development of structure in the Universe. It's a very hot topic in the cosmology right now," said Professor Rudnick.
Great 'cosmic nothingness' found
VLA (NRAO/AUI)
The result comes from a sky survey by the VLA in New Mexico
'It's hard to picture'
Astronomers have found an enormous void in space that measures nearly a billion light-years across.
It is empty of both normal matter - such as galaxies and stars - and the mysterious "dark matter" that cannot be seen directly with telescopes.
The "hole" is located in the direction of the Eridanus constellation and has been identified in data from a survey of the sky made at radio wavelengths.
The discovery will be reported in a paper in the Astrophysical Journal.
Previous sky surveys that have traced the large-scale structure of the nearby Universe have long shown, for example, how the clustering of galaxies is strung into vast filaments and sheets that are separated by great gaps.
But the void discovered by a University of Minnesota team is about 1,000 times the volume of what would be expected in typical cosmic gaps.
"It's hard even for astronomers to picture how big these things are," conceded Minnesota's Professor Lawrence Rudnick.
"If you were to travel at the speed of light, it would take you several years to get to the nearest stars in our own Milky Way galaxy; but if you were to go to this hole and enter one side, you'd have to travel for a billion years before you would get to the other side," he told BBC News.
The void is roughly 6-10 billion light-years away and takes a sizeable chunk out of the visible Universe in its direction.
Dark evidence
The team used data from the US National Radio Astronomy Observatory's VLA Sky Survey (NVSS) to make its discovery. The VLA - which stands for Very Large Array - is a collection of 27 radio telescopes in New Mexico.
The finding is said to fit neatly with observations of the Universe's "oldest light" - the famous Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation, the study of which has earned several scientists the Nobel Prize.
This is the radiation that comes from just 380,000 years after the Big Bang when the Universe had cooled to such a degree that hydrogen atoms could exist. Before that time, scientists say, the Universe would have been so hot that matter and light would have been "coupled" - the cosmos would have been opaque.
THE CMB - OLD AND COLD
CMB (Rudnick et al., NRAO/AUI/NSF, NASA)
Nasa Probes have mapped the Cosmic Microwave Background which is all around us in space
This radiation from the infant Universe shines at weak radio (microwave) wavelengths
The maps show up tiny temperature fluctuations - the mottled colours above
These fluctuations correspond to the early distribution of matter in the fledgling cosmos
Nasa's WMap satellite sees a cold spot lying in the path of the newly found void
'Ancient light' takes Nobel
Today, this light shines at microwave wavelengths at a frigid -270C; and observations of the CMB made by Nasa's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe show a particular "cold spot" in the direction of the newly identified void.
The explanation for this may lie in the enigmatic "dark energy" that scientists know so little about but which is said to be accelerating the expansion of the Universe.
Light particles passing through the void would be expected to lose a little more energy than those passing through space cluttered with matter - if dark energy is stretching the Universe apart at a faster and faster rate.
Scientists refer to this as the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe Effect and a corresponding "warm spot" in the CMB associated with an area of space dominated by a supercluster of galaxies was identified some years ago.
"In essence, this latest study gives us a very elegant demonstration of the existence of dark energy in a way which is very convincing," commented Professor Carlos Frenk, the director of the Institute for Computational Cosmology at Durham University, UK.
"We keep getting evidence for dark energy, this component of the Universe which is so dominant, and yet we still have only a tiny glimmer of what it could be."
The reason the void exists is not known. "That's going to be a challenge for people that work on the development of structure in the Universe. It's a very hot topic in the cosmology right now," said Professor Rudnick.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Monday, December 17, 2007
Friday, December 14, 2007
Multimedia message
Multimedia message
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Thursday, December 13, 2007
9:10 a.m. 285 today. Third bundle plus a cased set. Average dps. Wintry mix. Thank you, Jesus!
...and thanks to Bob Poole for the Dunkin' Donuts and coffee! And thanks again, Jesus!
12:25 p.m. Cleaning the case. Third bundle. Two cased occupants. Two expresses (just made it!). Slushy roads. Gas tank 85% empty. Mounted route on trash day. Somedays you really earn your money! Thank you Jesus!
3:09 p.m. Wipers just quit. Supervisor instructed me to return to office for new truck.
3:54 p.m. Back on the street in spare #9. I started to get really wet and damp from being in the rain in my winter jacket when I moved the mail from my regular truck to the spare. After I got back on the street I had the thought that I might have accidentally yanked out the plug to the cord that powers the wipers, which means it may be an easy fix after all. But I am satisfied with how I handled the situation in the moment, especially since it gave me a credible reason for the overtime. Thank you, Jesus!
This strange looking thing is my improvised night shade, which I use when doing mounted routes after dark (which was necessary today). I take two PS-From 3982s and wrap them sideways around the dome light of the LLV, holding them in place with a rubber band around the edge of the housing. I get white light straight down on the mail on the table, while I get pinkish light reflecting on the inside of the glass. Of course, if I absolutely need to see out of the windows (when I’m driving rather than actually making deliveries), I just turn the light off. I do this because I believe I am preserving more of my night vision. (4:58 p.m.)
Thank you Jesus, for ingenuity!
6:24 p.m. Finally back at the office! Made my last delivery at 6 p.m., about 15 minutes earlier than I expected. It means that the hour I took to switch trucks pretty much covers the O/T I used; hopefully they won’t give me grief about it tomorrow.
6:24 p.m. Found a penny, 1985! After all the chazarai (sp?) of today! Thank you, Jesus!
7:48 p.m. Two pennies from the cup at Liquor Locker, 1967 and 2007D. Thank you, Jesus!
...and thanks to Bob Poole for the Dunkin' Donuts and coffee! And thanks again, Jesus!
12:25 p.m. Cleaning the case. Third bundle. Two cased occupants. Two expresses (just made it!). Slushy roads. Gas tank 85% empty. Mounted route on trash day. Somedays you really earn your money! Thank you Jesus!
3:09 p.m. Wipers just quit. Supervisor instructed me to return to office for new truck.
3:54 p.m. Back on the street in spare #9. I started to get really wet and damp from being in the rain in my winter jacket when I moved the mail from my regular truck to the spare. After I got back on the street I had the thought that I might have accidentally yanked out the plug to the cord that powers the wipers, which means it may be an easy fix after all. But I am satisfied with how I handled the situation in the moment, especially since it gave me a credible reason for the overtime. Thank you, Jesus!
This strange looking thing is my improvised night shade, which I use when doing mounted routes after dark (which was necessary today). I take two PS-From 3982s and wrap them sideways around the dome light of the LLV, holding them in place with a rubber band around the edge of the housing. I get white light straight down on the mail on the table, while I get pinkish light reflecting on the inside of the glass. Of course, if I absolutely need to see out of the windows (when I’m driving rather than actually making deliveries), I just turn the light off. I do this because I believe I am preserving more of my night vision. (4:58 p.m.)Thank you Jesus, for ingenuity!
6:24 p.m. Finally back at the office! Made my last delivery at 6 p.m., about 15 minutes earlier than I expected. It means that the hour I took to switch trucks pretty much covers the O/T I used; hopefully they won’t give me grief about it tomorrow.
6:24 p.m. Found a penny, 1985! After all the chazarai (sp?) of today! Thank you, Jesus!
7:48 p.m. Two pennies from the cup at Liquor Locker, 1967 and 2007D. Thank you, Jesus!
Monday, December 10, 2007
Sunday, December 9, 2007
So, there I am, minding my own business, when...
I'm in the theater, waiting to see "Beowulf 3D" and a uniformed guard came to me at my seat and asked to see my ticket!--which I had, of course. But this has never happened to me before. Hmm....clearly, this is ALL BUSH'S FAULT! (unless it's because of global warming--which only happens in the movies anyway) No wonder this happened in a movie theater!
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Multimedia message
Friday, December 7, 2007
Feast of St. Ambrose, Vigil of the Immaculate Conception
Hello from my mobile browser. 282 today, plus marriage mail. Light volume so far. Found the first penny already, 1987, on the ledge of the case. Thank you, Jesus!
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Thursday, Feast of St. Nicholas
11:13 a.m. : Found a penny, 1984. Thank you, Jesus!
11:44 a.m.: Found a penny, 1986, in front of Krauszer's. Thank you, Jesus!
11:46 a.m.: 281 today. Light volume, light traffic, nice (cold) weather. It ought to be am easy day.
12:03 p.m.: Took a penny from the cup, 1986, at Steve's Place. Thank you, Jesus!
12:22 p.m.: Found a penny, 1988. Thank you, Jesus!
. . . And a dime, 2000 P. Thank you, Jesus!
12:47 p.m.: Found a nickel, 1988. Thank you, Jesus!
1:00 p.m.: Mother lode! Two quarters, 1990P, 2002P, a nickel, 2006P, AND three pennies,1992, 1999, and 2001. THANK YOU JESUS!
1:26 p.m.: Took a penny from the cup, 1982. Thank you, Jesus!
1:36 p.m.: Found a dime, but the date has worn off. Penny from the cup, 1993, Sunrise Deli. Thank you, Jesus!
2:02 p.m.:
2:54 p.m.: Found two pennies, 1991 and 1985. Left a pen somewhere along the route. Thank you, Jesus!
3:03 p.m. : Stopped on a dime, 2003P. Literally! Thank you, Jesus!
3:11 p.m.: Found a lonely penny on the counter at Burger King. 1991.. Thank you, Jesus!
4:05 p.m.: Someone just came up to me and asked permission to take a picture of the front of the truck. She said she had to take pictures of different textures for a school assignement.
5:33 p.m.:
8:31 p.m.: Found a quarter, 1993, in the mall parking lot. Thank you, Jesus!
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Multimedia message
Remember the Fractal Image? Well, in the center,
Is this beautiful pattern, at a magnification of 2^714! More to come . . .
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