Monday, February 27, 2012

Reasons Why The Philippines Is Called The Pearl Of The Orient Seas





           With over 7,000 islands and hundreds of thousands of miles of unspoiled stretch of fine coastlines, it is easy to see why the Philippines is considered the Pearl of the Orient Seas. The name Philippines was derived from the name of King Philip of Spain when Magellan discovered this archipelago in 1521. This country has significant cultural affinity to the West, especially to American culture. The Philippines was a Spanish colony for over 3 centuries before it was put under American control at the dawn of 19th century until the Second World War. Today, 90% of the population can speak English as a secondary language, adding to the lure of this country. Let us do a quick rundown of the reasons why it is a beach paradise for vacationers:

1.) Boracay-Every tourist must have heard or visited this tropical haven in the center of the archipelago. This island offers blue-clear water, powdery-fine beaches, and world-class resorts–all in very reasonable prices. Famous for both foreigners and locals, Boracay is also famous for its night parties making it the busiest beach in the Philippines all year round.


2.) Apo Island, Negros-This tiny and secluded island off the coast of Negros in Central Philippines is a tourist magnet. It has excellent coral reef formations as well as clean, white sandy beach. There are only a handful of locals in this island, making it one of the few virgin territories in this archipelago. If you want to see the marvels of the deep, visit Apo Island.

3.) Mactan Island-It was not surprising why Ferdinand Magellan fell here. This mystical island is a gem to behold from afar. This is the place where the Spaniards first suffered their defeat against the early Filipinos. Today, the island is both a cultural and historical center in the region. It lies a few kilometers away from the second-largest city in the Philippines, Cebu, which is great tourist hub itself. Mactan Island has several world-class hotels with easy access to some of the best beaches in the Philippines.

4.) Camiguin Island-Affectionately dubbed by the locals as the “Garden of Eden” in the Philippines, this pear-shaped island is located in the southern of the country, providing a healthy blend of wonderful scenery, sunny days, white sandy beaches, and great culinary experience. This island is also known for its lanzones, a sweet tropical fruit.

5.) Panglao Island-Also known as the “little paradise of pure hearts” this small island is part of the province of Bohol, a magnificent tourism destination as well. Just like any other islands in the Philippines, Panglao offers unrivaled vistas and great accommodation throughout the year. Since there are only two seasons in the country, you can enjoy the sun here for a month without even a single rain.

           The Philippines is more than just any other beach destination in the world. It has other off-beach attractions and numerous mountain resorts as well. In addition, there are also several fine museums in the capital city of Manila. Visiting the country can be one of the most unforgettable experiences you can have.



CLOZE TEST

            Directions: Supply the missing words to complete the paragraph.

                The Philippines is known as the _____________ in Asia because of its __________ beaches and clean sea water. This makes the Philippines to be __________ to tourists, locally and even internationally. You can found here Boracay that was known not only for its white beach but also for its __________, making it the busiest beach in the Philippines all year round. The __________ that has excellent coral reef formations and one of the few ____________ in the archipelago. The pear-shaped island of Camiguin that was affectionately dubbed by the locals as _____________ in the Philippines, and Panglao Island that was also known as the __________ and a part of the province of Bohol, it was a __________ tourism destination as well. The Philippines is more than just any other beach destination in the world. It has other off-beach attractions and numerous mountain resorts as well. In addition, there are also several fine ____________ in the capital city of Manila. Visiting the country can be one of the ____________ experiences you can have.

What is a Doppelgänger?









In fiction and folklore, a doppelgänger  is a paranormal double of a living person, typically representing evil or misfortune. In modern vernacular, the word has come to refer to any double or look-alike of a person.

            The word also is used to describe the sensation of having glimpsed oneself in peripheral vision, in a position where there is no chance that it could have been a reflection. Doppelgängers often are perceived as a sinister form of bilocation and are regarded by some to be harbingers of bad luck. In some traditions, a doppelgänger seen by a person's friends or relatives portends illness or danger, while seeing one's own doppelgänger is an omen of death.
            In Norse mythology, a vardøger is a ghostly double who precedes a living person and is seen performing their actions in advance. In Finnish mythology, this is called having an etiäinen, i.e., "a firstcomer". In Ancient Egyptian mythology, a ka was a tangible "spirit double" having the same memories and feeling as the original person. In one Egyptian myth titled "The Greek Princess," an Egyptian view of the Trojan War, a ka of Helen was used to mislead Paris of Troy, helping to stop the war. In some myths, the doppelgänger is a version of the Ankou, a personification of death.

Spelling

            The word doppelgänger  is a  loanword  from German: Doppel (double) and Gänger (walker). The singular and plural forms are the same. It was first used by Jean Paul in the novel Siebenkäs (1796), and explained by a footnote.
            As is true for all other common nouns in German, the word is written with an initial capital letter. In English, the word is conventionally uncapitalized (doppelgänger). It is also common to drop thediacritic umlaut, writing "doppelganger."

Scientific and philosophical investigations

Left temporoparietal junction

            In September 2006, it was reported in Nature that Shahar Arzy and colleagues of the University Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland, unexpectedly had reproduced an effect strongly reminiscent of the doppelgänger phenomenon via the electromagnetic stimulation of a patient's brain. They applied focal electrical stimulation to a patient's left temporoparietal junction while she lay flat on a bed. The patient immediately felt the presence of another person in her "extrapersonal space." Other than epilepsy, for which the patient was being treated, she was psychologically fit.
            The other person was described as young, of indeterminate sex, silent, motionless, and with a body posture identical to her own. The other person was located exactly behind her, almost touching and therefore within the bed on which the patient was lying.
            A second electrical stimulation was applied with slightly more intensity, while the patient was sitting up with her arms folded. This time the patient felt the presence of a "man" who had his arms wrapped around her. She described the sensation as highly unpleasant and electrical stimulation was stopped.
            Finally, when the patient was seated, electrical stimulation was applied while the patient was asked to perform a language test with a set of flash cards. On this occasion the patient reported the presence of a sitting person, displaced behind her and to the right. She said the presence was attempting to interfere with the test: "He wants to take the card; he doesn’t want me to read." Again, the effect was disturbing and electrical stimulation was ceased.
Similar effects were found for different positions and postures when electrical stimulation exceeded 10 mA, at the left temporoparietal junction.
            Arzy and his colleagues suggest that the left temporoparietal junction of the brain evokes the sensation of self image—body location, position, posture etc. When the left temporoparietal junction is disturbed, the sensation of self-attribution is broken and may be replaced by the sensation of a foreign presence or copy of oneself displaced nearby. This copy mirrors the real person's body posture, location and position. Arzy and his colleagues suggest that the phenomenon they created is seen in certain mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, particularly when accompanied by paranoia, delusions of persecution and of alien control. Nevertheless, the effects reported are highly reminiscent of the doppelgänger phenomenon. Accordingly, some reports of doppelgängers may well be due to failure of the left temporoparietal junction.

Notable reports

Abraham Lincoln

      Carl Sandburg's biography contains the following:
      A dream or illusion had haunted Lincoln at times through the winter. On the evening of his election he had thrown himself on one of the haircloth sofas at home, just after the first telegrams of November 7 had told him he was elected President, and looking into a bureau mirror across the room he saw himself full length, but with two faces. It bothered him; he got up; the illusion vanished; but when he lay down again there in the glass again were two faces, one paler than the other. He got up again, mixed in the election excitement, forgot about it; but it came back, and haunted him. He told his wife about it; she worried too. A few days later he tried it once more and the illusion of the two faces again registered to his eyes. But that was the last; the ghost since then wouldn't come back, he told his wife, who said it was a sign he would be elected to a second term, and the death pallor of one face meant he wouldn't live through his second term.
      This is adapted from Washington in Lincoln's Time (1895) by Noah Brooks, who claimed that he had heard it from Lincoln himself on 9 November 1864, at the time of his re-election, and that he had printed an account "directly after." He also claimed that the story was confirmed by Mary Todd Lincoln, and partially confirmed by Private Secretary John Hay (who thought it dated from Lincoln's nomination, not his election). Brooks' version is as follows (in Lincoln's own words):
      It was just after my election in 1860, when the news had been coming in thick and fast all day and there had been a great "hurrah, boys," so that I was well tired out, and went home to rest, throwing myself down on a lounge in my chamber. Opposite where I lay was a bureau with a swinging glass upon it (and here he got up and placed furniture to illustrate the position), and looking in that glass I saw myself reflected nearly at full length; but my face, I noticed had two separate and distinct images, the tip of the nose of one being about three inches from the tip of the other. I was a little bothered, perhaps startled, and got up and looked in the glass, but the illusion vanished. On lying down again, I saw it a second time, plainer, if possible, than before; and then I noticed that one of the faces was a little paler — say five shades — than the other. I got up, and the thing melted away, and I went off, and in the excitement of the hour forgot all about it — nearly, but not quite, for the thing would once in a while come up, and give me a little pang as if something uncomfortable had happened. When I went home again that night I told my wife about it, and a few days afterward I made the experiment again, when (with a laugh), sure enough! the thing came back again; but I never succeeded in bringing the ghost back after that, though I once tried very industriously to show it to my wife, who was somewhat worried about it. She thought it was a "sign" that I was to be elected to a second term of office, and that the paleness of one of the faces was an omen that I should not see life through the last term.
      Lincoln was known to be superstitious, and old mirrors will occasionally produce double images; whether this Janus illusion can be counted as a doppelgänger is perhaps debatable, though probably no more than other such claims of doppelgängers. An alternate consideration, however, suggests that Lincoln suffered vertical strabismus in his left eye, a disorder which could induce visions of a vertically displaced image.

In popular culture

      Doppelgängers, as dark doubles of individual identities, appear in a variety of fictional works from Fyodor Dostoyevsky's "The Double" to Al-Tayyib Salih's Season of Migration to the North to Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. In its simplest incarnation, mistaken identity is a classic trope used in literature, from Twelfth Night to A Tale of Two Cities. But in these cases, the characters look similar for perfectly normal reasons, such as being siblings or simple coincidence.
      Some stories offer supernatural explanations for doubles. These doppelgängers are typically, but not always, evil in some way. The double will often impersonate the victim and go about ruining them, for instance through committing crimes or insulting the victim's friends. Sometimes, the double even tries to kill the original. In José Saramago's 2001 novel The Double (original Portuguese title O Homem Duplicado), both men's baser instincts come to the surface and they attempt to take advantage of each other. The torment is occasionally earned; for instance, in Edgar Allan Poe's short story "William Wilson," the protagonist of questionable morality is dogged by his doppelgänger most tenaciously when his morals fail. A similar device is employed in Fyodor Dostoyevsky's short story "The Double: A Petersburg Poem".
In Philip Roth's novel "Operational Shylock," the author and protagonist travels to Israel in order to confront a doppelgänger. The faux Roth is revealed to be a surgically-altered impostor bent on using the author's notoriety to advance a nefarious political agenda. Although technically not a doppelgänger, the imposture threatens Roth's self-identity and forces him to undergo a personal transformation, both themes associated with Doppelgangers in fiction.
Doppelgängers are also a common theme in cinema, most notably in Henry Selick's Coraline (film), Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Doppelganger from 2003, Avi Nesher's 1993 film of the same name starring Drew Barrymore, The Abandoned (2006 film), and Dan Asenlund's 2011 short film Four Degrees of Jonas Rydell, as well as in many TV shows. Primer (film) (2004) featured doppelgangers which were created by way of a time machine. Solaris (1972 film) and Solaris (2002 film) had "manifestations" similar to doppelgangers on a space ship. The Australian film Lake Mungo (film) features a portent of death to come.
Source link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doppelg%C3%A4nger





MULTIPLE CHOICE

Directions: Select the correct answer and write the letter on the space provided before each                                  number.

____________1. The word also is used to describe the sensation of having glimpsed oneself in peripheral vision, in a position where there is no chance that it could have been      a reflection. 
a.       Etiäinen
b.      Vardøger
c.       Doppelgänger
____________2. The word doppelgänger was first used by Jean Paul in the novel _______.

a.       Siebenkäs (1796)
b.      Operational Shylock (1998)
c.       The Double (2001)

_____________3.  In Norse mythology, a _________ is a ghostly double who precedes a living person and is seen performing their actions in advance

a.       Vardøger
b.      Ka of Helen
c.       Etiäinen

_____________4.  The torment is occasionally earned; for instance, in Edgar Allan Poe's short story _________, the protagonist of questionable morality is dogged by his doppelgänger most tenaciously when his morals fail.

a.       The Double: A Petersburg Poem
b.      William Wilson
c.       Twelfth Night to A Tale of Two Cities

___________5. In fiction and folklore, a doppelgänger is a paranormal double of a living person, typically representing evil or ___________.


a.       de javu
b.      premonition
c.       misfortune

Things You Must Never Say Aloud


Don't say these bad words. Ever.
   

            There is a lexicon of phrases that can destroy each of us. They have the power to halt progress, kill a dream and, ultimately, turn you into a shriveled up person who you no longer recognize, and somewhat despise.

            These words vary for people, but their poisonous sentiments are universal. These messages we tell ourselves serve only to make us feel ashamed, powerless, and unhappy. Why do that to yourself? Why be your own enemy?

            I have struggled with my own list of doom-inspired sayings, but through the years, I have slowly learned to identify the most menacing verbal culprits. The next step is to cut them out of speech and conversation, because there is a powerful force behind words. 

            Intention and positive (or negative) thought is real, even if you are not a New Age subscriber. 

According to Martin Seligman, an expert on positive psychology, there is validity behind self-fulfilling prophecies. His research indicates that people can foresee and determine their futures by the way they explain events and experiences in their lives.
In simple terms, Seligman says, "Positive feelings about a person or an object get us to approach it, while negative feelings get us to avoid it."
And even if positive thinking didn't supply the desired results, what is the point of hopelessly wandering throughout life, never looking forward to anything?

            Like Seligman, I believe that what you export into the world will eventually be imported back into you. Which is why I have changed the way I address myself and the people around me.

These are five things I try not to say aloud:
  1. I can't do this.  
            Even if this is true, even if you are 100 percent positive you can't do something, do not say it aloud, and certainly, not around others. You have the choice not to do it if you don't want to, but do not announce your limitations. Keep it to yourself. Let your brain mull it over and work out the impossible details. The problem with declaring a barrier, is that once you say it, something in your head clicks, and you begin to tell yourself that you really can't do it and that you shouldn't even try. You've walked away from a door of opportunity without checking to see if it was unlocked.
  1. Why does she get it and I don't? 
             As a middle child, I have survived decades of suffering from Jan Brady syndrome. I openly admit, jealousy is my most menacing vice; however, I make efforts to curb envy by refusing to acknowledge it. Once you start asking God, why it is that Marsha seems to have a charmed life, while you are relegated to Cousin Oliver status, it's over. Resentment fills up your heart and a little part of you gives up-- chalking it up to, "Well, life's not fair anyway.... so why should I even try?" With Facebook and other vanity social media sites, it's difficult not to believe that every person in your social circle has a more exciting life than you. If these websites make you jealous or feel sad, then get off of them.  Don't make yourself suffer in reality, because of an unattainable photo-shopped picture you saw in a friend's virtual newsfeed.
  1. I'm fat, I'm ugly, I'm stupid, etc. 
            We all think these terrible thoughts once in a while. That's fine. We can't really suddenly rewire our brain after society's lifetime of negative inculcation. But we can minimize the damage we inflict upon ourselves by not voicing these anathemas aloud. When I say "I'm fat," I immediately become fat and insecure. I look for compliments or an ego-boost from the person I am talking to... but if she does say, "No, you look amazing", I assume she is lying and is just trying to be nice or she feel guilted into it. What is the point of this dialogue exactly? I never feel skinny afterwards, anyway. The more effective thing to do-- than to carp on about your flaws-- is to fix them. If you feel fat, develop an exercise routine and make an effort to lose weight or whatever. If you feel ugly, then start watching YouTube videos on how to apply makeup correctly (that's what I did!) or build your confidence through other means (beauty, is, after all, confidence). If you are convinced you are dumb as rocks, learn something. Go to the library, take a course, inject some kind of knowledge serum into your brain. In other words, make an effort to change how you feel, so you will no longer say that you are fat, ugly, stupid, etc.
  1. You're better than me.
            Sorry, no one is better than you. They are just better at executing their goals. We say,"...but you're better than me" to shirk responsibility, so we don't have to commit to doing our best or seek to reach excellence. After all, if another person is better than us, then we don't have to try as hard, since we wont be as good as him anyway. We think, "What's the point?" Lame example, but look at Steve Jobs. Had he adopted the Microsoft-is-better-than-me mentality, I would not be writing on this Mac. You would not be reading this on your iPhone, iPad, or Macbook Pro. Obviously, we are not all destined to become the next Steve Jobs in our careers, but some of us are. Why can't it be you?
  1. I'll do it later. 
            For me, the word "later" encapsulates fear. Why? Because, in my life, later is never. Tabling a task until this ambiguous "later" is essentially predicting the task's funeral. I learned this difficult lesson in fifth grade, when I procrastinated on a school project and was up 'til midnight finishing a presentation on Delaware. Don't put off later what you can accomplish now. We all have busy schedules, families, significant others, and friends to entertain, but life is about your accomplishments too-- so that you feel satisfied and happy. Don't use lack of time to excuse you from your dreams and needs. There was once a writer who worked a full-time teaching job, was a family man, and still found time (albeit, late in the night) to work on his novels every night. His name? Stephen King

Source link: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/valley-girl-brain/201202/things-you-must-never-say-aloud




QUESTIONS:




1.  Who is the positive psychologist mentioned on the article?
2. From the article, which of the words were you used to utter? Why? 
3. Do you agree to Jen Kim? Why?
4. After reading the article, what action will you do in response of being positive?
5. From the article, can you write down three more things that you should not say? What are those words?