Have You Heard of Dr Michio Kaku?

Michio Kaku (加来 道雄 Kaku Michio, born January 24, 1947) is an American theoretical physicist, the Henry Semat Professor of Theoretical Physics in the City College of New York of City University of New York, a co-founder of string field theory, a futurist, and a "communicator" and "popularizer" of science.b> He has written several books about physics and related topics; he has made frequent appearances on radio, television, and film; and he writes extensive online blogs and articles. He has written two New York Times best sellers, Physics of the Impossible (2008) and Physics of the Future (2011). He has hosted several TV specials for BBC-TV, the Discovery Channel, and the Science Channel. Here's another interesting video from several of Dr Kaku's videos.

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The Rock is a 1996 action film that primarily takes place on Alcatraz Island and in the San Francisco Bay Area. It was directed by Michael Bay, director of Bad Boys, and stars Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage and Ed Harris. It was produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, producers of Top Gun and Crimson Tide, and released through Hollywood Pictures. The film is dedicated to Simpson,[2] who died five months before its release. This was the first film on which Cage and Bruckheimer worked together.

Plot: A group of rogue Force Recon Marines led by disenchanted Brigadier General Frank Hummel (Harris) seize a stockpile of deadly VX gas–armed rockets from a heavily guarded military bunker, reluctantly leaving one of their men to die in the process, when a bead of the gas falls and breaks. The next day, Hummel and his men, along with more renegade Marines (Captains Frye and Darrow who have never previously served under Hummel) seize control of Alcatraz during a guided tour and take 81 tourists hostage in the prison cells. Hummel threatens to launch the stolen rockets against the population of San Francisco unless the government pays ransom and reparations to the families of Recon Marines, (using money the US earned via illegal weapons sales) who died on illegal, clandestine missions under his command and whose deaths were not honored.

The Pentagon and FBI develop a plan to retake the island with a Navy SEAL Team, enlisting the bureau's top chemical weapons specialist, Dr. Stanley Goodspeed (Cage), who initially thinks he's consulting the team, but soon learns that he has to accompany the SEALs due to his specialisation in chemical warfare. Goodspeed's confidence, already shaky as he received only minimal training in combat, is further tested when his fiancee Carla reveals that she is pregnant.

Recognizing that any surface approach will be seen by Hummel's men, FBI Director James Womack (John Spencer) is forced to turn to federal prisoner John Mason (Connery), a former MI6 Agent and SAS Captain who has been illegally detained for decades by Womack and his predecessors. Mason is the only Alcatraz inmate ever to escape through the prison's uncharted tunnels, doing so in 1963, one year after imprisonment.

Although Goodspeed manages to convince Mason to cooperate with the FBI in return for a pardon from the US Attorney General, Womack reneges on the deal. While in custody under the supervison of Special Agent Ernest Paxton (William Forsythe), Mason manages to escape to see his estranged daughter Jade (Claire Forlani), who is the only proof that he exists. Goodspeed arrives and reveals to Mason's daughter that he is aiding the FBI. Womack initially only wants Mason to consult the SEALs, as he confides to Agent Paxton that he does not want Mason loose, but the FBI have no choice but to let Mason accompany the SEALs since he has committed the maps to memory.

The team infiltrates Alcatraz, through the underground tunnels with Mason's guidance. The SEALs however are surrounded and gunned down by Hummel's marines in a shower room after SEAL Commander Anderson (Michael Biehn) refuses to surrender (the fight is provoked by Marine Captains Frye and Darrow, later revealed to be following Hummel only for the money instead of honor), leaving only Mason and Goodspeed alive. Womack plans to abort the mission, but Paxton agrees to let them them continue saying that Mason and Goodspeed are their last hope. Mason attempts to leave the prison, but Goodspeed manages to convince him to help him defuse the rockets, since Mason's daughter is at risk from the rockets. Using Mason's knowledge of the prison, they quietly eliminate several small teams of marines and disable 12 of the 15 rockets, until Hummel threatens over the loudspeaker to execute a hostage if the remaining "Navy SEALs" do not surrender and return the guidance chips from the rockets. Only Mason surrenders to Hummel, trying to buy Goodspeed some time. Though Goodspeed manages to disable another rocket, the Marines capture him shortly thereafter. With the incursion team lost, the military readies a backup plan: an air strike by F/A-18's with Thermite plasma, which will neutralize the poison gas but kill everyone on the island including the hostages.

As Mason uses his unique experience to escape from their cells, he reveals why he was held there for so many years — for stealing a microfilm of the United States' most closely guarded secrets, including the Roswell UFO incident and the John F. Kennedy assassination (Womack revealed this to Paxton, earlier). Mason states he didn't return it, because he knew the FBI would "suicide" him, if he did. While Goodspeed and Mason search for the final two rockets, Hummel fires one of them but changes the coordinates at the last second causing the rocket to crash harmlessly out to sea. Facing Captains Frye and Darrow's (Gregory Sporleder and Tony Todd) frustration, Hummel explains that their bluff failed and that he refuses to harm innocent civilians. He orders them to exit Alcatraz with a few hostages and the remaining VX rockets to cover their retreat, while he'll stay, personally assuming blame.

Realizing that they will not be paid their $1 million apiece, Frye and Darrow, along with Sergeant Crisp (Bokeem Woodbine), decide mutiny against Hummel and his second-in-command, Major Tom Baxter (David Morse). With Mason and Goodspeed watching from afar, Crisp attempts to secure Hummel on Darrows orders, but fails as the General is able to hold the NCO at gunpoint. When Baxter is asked to take a side, he appears to side with Frye, Darrow and Crisp. The Major says what a privilege it was serving with Hummel, then fires at the three rogues. In the ensuring firefight, Crisp is killed by Hummel but Baxter is killed while Hummel is fatally wounded and pulled away by Mason. Darrow and Fyre proceed with the plan to fire on San Francisco. With his last breath, Hummel tells Goodspeed the location of the last rocket. As the jets approach, Darrow is killed when Goodspeed fires the last disarmed rocket into him, launching the Marine outside where he falls and is impaled on a fencepost. Goodspeed stows the last gas pearls from the warhead and takes a loose one, but is then attacked by Frye who begins to strangle Goodspeed to death.

Using the VX to defend himself, Goodspeed shoves the gas pearl into Frye's mouth and gives him an uppercut to the jaw, breaking the pearl and exposing both of them to the gas. Goodspeed injects himself in the heart with atropine as Frye dies from the VX gas. Goodspeed then lights green flares to signal that the threat is over, but only after one of the pilots fires, sending Goodspeed flying into the sea. The early detonation hits the back of the island and harms no one else.

Mason reappears to pull the unconscious Goodspeed to shore. When he recovers, Goodspeed tells Mason that Womack tore up his pardon, which Mason expected. When radioed, Goodspeed states that Mason is dead. Goodspeed tells Mason to go to his hotel room, take a change of clothes and $200 he stashed and run. Mason thanks Goodspeed, and gives him a note that holds the location of where he had stashed the microfilm. When the FBI arrives, Goodspeed is asked about Mason and says the man was "vaporized." Paxton simply grins, suspecting otherwise as he, too, sympathizes with Mason.

Goodspeed and his pregnant bride Carla (Vanessa Marcil) visit Fort Walton, Kansas, recovering the microfilm with a half-century of state secrets, including who actually killed John F. Kennedy.

Boac, Marinduque, Philippines-Our Second Home

Chateau Du Mer Conference Hall dressed up for a Wedding Reception

The following video was tagged into my FaceBook timeline by Dr Roby Montellano and made by Bert Morelos of Vancouver, Canada. Thank you Roby and I am taking this opportunity to share this video with my blog readers from 152 countries all over the world.

Boac, Marinduque, is our second Home! The economy and tourism of the province is now being threatened by trimming of Zest Air flights from Manila to Boac after the end of October this year. I am hoping that another airline will take over air service to this beautiful island-known worldwide as the Heart of the Philippines. Boac is the Capital town of the Province of Marinduque in the Philippines. One of its barangay is Amoingon, where my beach resort Chateau Du Mer is located.

Short History of Boac:The name Boac is derived from the Tagalog word biak, which means "divided". The town had been divided into two areas by a river running from the Eastern hinterland to the Western plains down to the sea. The two areas were the Northern Area and the Southern Area.

In 1621, the Spanish Jesuit missionaries brought the 3-foot Marian image to Boac. So began the people's devotion to the image of the Virgin Mary. In the mid-seventeenth century, a group of Muslims within the Philippines called the Moro people felt threatened by the actions of the ruling Spanish government. So, they challenged the government by launching attacks on coastal Christian towns. This resulted in a raid along the shores of Barangay Laylay, near the Boac River.

During the siege, the neighborhood people fled in panic and took refuge inside the fortress church of Boac, which is now called Immaculate Conception Cathedral. In the meantime, all able-bodied men defended the outer walls of the church fortress against the attacks. Many Christians were killed and, by the third day of violence, those still alive began to run short on food. The capture of the fortress seemed imminent.

The survivors began to pray fervently at the throne of Mary, asking her to deliver them from their enemies. Legend says that suddenly there came a very strong storm, with torrential rain fall, thunder and lightning. At the very height of the storm, it is reported that the image of a beautiful lady with outstretched arms appeared standing on the top of the wall. Terror seized the Moros and they fled in confusion to their vinta boats. Thus, the Christians were saved from death by Mary.

Ever since this incident, the image of Mary has been honored and given the title “Biglang Awa.” In order to commemorate the miracle, a stone niche was built on the wall at the very spot where Mary appeared. The old image brought by the Jesuits in Boac was placed there. There is still a shrine at this location today.

Governor Carmencita Ongsiako Reyes built a larger-than-life-size image of the Virgin Mary in cement and placed in the seashore in Balanacan Port to welcome travelers to the island.(see photo on bottom of this page)

On May 10, 2008, the Diocese of Boac celebrated the thirtieth anniversary and the golden anniversary of the canonical coronation of Mahal na Birhen ng Biglang-Awa (1958–2008). Cardinal Ricardo Vidal of Mogpog, Marinduque, officiated at the consecrated mass.

In 1942, Boac was occupied by Japanese troops. In 1945, the Battle of Marinduque began and the American - Philippine Commonwealth troops landed in Boac. Boac is now the home of about 50,000 natives called the Boacaneous.

Dinagyang Festival of Iloilo

The Philippines is a nation of Fiestas and Festivals. Every month there is always a fiesta or festival in some place in the Philippines. One of the most popular festivals is the Dinagyang Festival of Iloilo. Iloilo is the province where I grew up and finished High school. Today, the festival had been attracting tourists all over the world. The following video is the highlight of this year celebration. Enjoy! The Dinagyang is a religious and cultural festival in Iloilo City, Philippines held on the fourth Sunday of January, or right after the Sinulog In Cebu and the Ati-Atihan in Aklan. It is held both to honor the Santo Niño and to celebrate the arrival on Panay of Malay settlers and the subsequent selling of the island to them by the Atis.

Dinagyang began after Rev. Fr. Ambrosio Galindez of a local Roman Catholic parish introduced the devotion to Santo Niño in November 1967. In 1968, a replica of the original image of the Santo Niño de Cebu was brought to Iloilo by Fr. Sulpicio Enderez as a gift to the Parish of San Jose. The faithful, led by members of Confradia del Santo Niño de Cebu, Iloilo Chapter, worked to give the image a fitting reception starting at the Iloilo Airport and parading down the streets of Iloilo.

In the beginning, the observance of the feast was confined to the parish. The Confradia patterned the celebration on the Ati-atihan of Ibajay, Aklan, where natives dance in the streets, their bodies covered with soot and ashes, to simulate the Atis dancing to celebrate the sale of Panay. It was these tribal groups who were the prototype of the present festival.

In 1977, the Marcos government ordered the various regions of the Philippines to come up with festivals or celebrations that could boost tourism and development. The City of Iloilo readily identified the Iloilo Ati-atihan as its project. At the same time the local parish could no longer handle the growing challenges of the festival.

The Dinagyang is divided into three Major events: Ati-Ati Street Dancing, Kasadyahan Street Dancing and Miss Dinagyang.

Today, the main part of the festival consists of a number of "tribes", called "tribus", who are supposed to be Ati tribe members dancing in celebration. It should be noted that no actual Ati are involved nor do they benefit in any way from this event. There are a number of requirements, including that the performers must paint their skin brown and that only indigenous materials can be used for the costumes. All dances are performed to drum music. Many tribes are organized by the local high schools. Some tribes receive a subsidiary from the organizers and recruit private sponsors, with the best tribes receiving the most. The current Ati population of Iloilo is not involved with any of the tribes nor are they involved in the festival in any other way.

Dinagyang was voted as the best Tourism Event for 2006, 2007 and 2008 by the Association of Tourism Officers in the Philippines. It is the first festival in the world to get the support of the United Nations for the promotion of the Millennium Development Goals, and cited by the Asian Development Bank as Best Practice on government, private sector & NGO cooperations.

Poor Economic Projection for US this Fall

I have been watching closely the economic and other news around the world the last couple of months. I am not a worrier but I have a feeling the worst is not over for the US economy and something will happen this Fall. My personal concern is now amplified by this recent article published at http://the economiccollapse.blog.com.

17 Reasons To Be EXTREMELY Concerned About The Second Half Of 2012

What is the second half of 2012 going to bring? Are things going to get even worse than they are right now? Unfortunately, that appears more likely with each passing day. I will admit that I am extremely concerned about the second half of 2012. Historically, a financial crisis is much more likely to begin in the fall than during any other season of the year. Just think about it. The stock market crash of 1929 happened in the fall. "Black Monday" happened on October 19th, 1987. The financial crisis of 2008 started in the fall. There just seems to be something about the fall that brings out the worst in the financial markets. But of course there is not a stock market crash every year. So are there specific reasons why we should be extremely concerned about what is coming this year? Yes, there are. The ingredients for a "perfect storm" are slowly coming together, and in the months ahead we could very well see the next wave of the economic collapse strike. Sadly, we have never even come close to recovering from the last recession, and this next crisis might end up being even more painful than the last one.

The following are 17 reasons to be extremely concerned about the second half of 2012....

#1 Historical Trends: A recent IMF research paper by Luc Laeven and Fabián Valencia showed that a banking crisis is far more likely to start in September than in any other month. So what will this September bring?

#2 JP Morgan: Do you remember back in May when JP Morgan announced that it would be taking a 2 billion dollar trading loss on some derivatives trades gone bad? Well, the New York Times is now reporting that the real figure could reach 9 billion dollars, but nobody really knows for sure. At some point is JP Morgan going to need a bailout? If so, what is that going to do to the U.S. financial system?

#3 Derivatives: Last week, Moody's downgraded the credit ratings of 15 major global banks. As a result, a number of them have been required to post billions of dollars in additional collateral against derivatives exposures.... The worldwide derivatives market is starting to show some cracks, and at some point this is going to become a major disaster. Remember, the 9 largest U.S. banks have a total of more than 200 trillion dollars of exposure to derivatives. When this bubble completely bursts it is going to be impossible to fix.

#4 LEAP/E2020 Warning: LEAP/E2020 has issued a red alert for the global financial system for this fall. They are warning that the "second half of 2012" will represent a "major inflection point" for the global economic system....

#5 Increasing Pessimism: One recent survey of corporate executives found that only 20 percent of them expect the global economy to improve over the next 12 months and 48 percent of them expect the global economy to get worse over the next 12 months.

#6 Spain: The Spanish financial system is basically a total nightmare at this point. Moody's recently downgraded Spanish debt to one level above junk status, and earlier this week Moody's downgraded the credit ratings of 28 major Spanish banks. According to CNBC, Spain's short-term borrowing costs are now about three times higher than they were just one month ago....

#7 Italy: The situation in Italy continues to deteriorate and many analysts believe that it could be one of the next dominoes to fall. The following is from a recent Businessweek article. A recent Fortune article detailed some of the economic fundamentals that have so many economists deeply concerned about the Italian economy right now.

#8 Greece: I have written extensively about the financial nightmare that is unfolding in Greece. Unemployment has soared past the 20 percent mark, youth unemployment is above 50 percent, the Greek economy has contracted by close to 25 percent over the past four years and now Greek politicians are saying that a third bailout package may be necessary.

#9 Cyprus: The tiny island nation of Cyprus has become the fifth member of the eurozone to formally request a bailout. This is yet another sign that the eurozone is rapidly falling apart.

#10 Germany: German Chancellor Angela Merkel continues to promote an austerity path for Europe and she continues to maintain her very firm position against any kind of eurozone debt sharing. In fact, Merkel says that there will be no eurobonds "as long as I live". This means that there will be no "quick fix" for the problems that are unfolding in Europe.

#11 Bank Runs: Every single day, hundreds of millions of dollars is being pulled out of banks in southern Europe. Much of that money is being transferred to banks in northern Europe. In a previous article I included an extremely alarming quote from a CNBC article about the unfolding banking crisis in Europe. How long can these bank runs continue before banking systems start to collapse?

#12 Preparations For The Collapse Of The Eurozone: As I have written about previously, the smart money has already written off southern Europe. All over the continent major financial institutions are preparing for the worst. For example, just check out what Visa Europe is doing.

#13 Global Lending Is Slowing Down: All over the globe the flow of credit is beginning to freeze up. In fact, the Bank for International Settlements says that worldwide lending is contracting at the fastest pace since the financial crisis of 2008.

#14 Sophisticated Cyber Attacks On Banks: It is being reported that "very sophisticated" hackers have successfully raided dozens of banks in Europe. So far, it is being estimated that they have stolen 60 million euros. What happens someday if we wake up and all the money in the banks is gone?

#15 U.S. Municipal Bankruptcies: All over the United States there are cities and towns on the verge of financial disaster. This week Stockton, California became the largest U.S. city to ever declare bankruptcy, but the reality is that this is only just the beginning of the municipal debt crisis.

#16 The Obamacare Decision: The U.S. economy is already a complete and total mess, and now the Obamacare decision is going to throw a huge wet blanket on it. All over America, small business owners are saying that they are going to have to let some workers go because they cannot afford to keep them all under Obamacare. It would be hard to imagine a more job killing law than Obamacare, and now that the Supreme Court decision has finally been announced we are going to see many businesses making some really hard decisions.

#17 The U.S. Election: It is being reported that Barack Obama is putting together an army of "thousands of lawyers" to deal with any disputes that arise over voting procedures or results. It certainly looks like this upcoming election is going to be extremely close, and there is the potential that we could end up facing another Bush v. Gore scenario where the fate of the presidency is determined in court. This campaign season is likely to be exceptionally nasty, and I fear what may happen if there is not a decisive winner on election day. The possibility of significant civil unrest is certainly there.

We definitely live in "interesting" times. Personally, I am deeply concerned about the September, October, November time frame.

Higgs Boson, the God Particle, Confirmed

TEVATRON COLLIDER

Have you heard of the Higgs Boson and The God Particle? As a retired scientist, I have been curious and had been following the latest news and development on the Higgs boson, otherwise known as “The God Particle”. Read the following article from today's CNN news to find out why it is called The God Particle even though it is not related at all to Religion and God.

(CNN) -- At the start of a big week for the Higgs boson, the most sought-after particle in all of physics, scientists in Illinois said Monday that they had crept closer to proving that the particle exists but had been unable to reach a definitive conclusion.

The scientists outlined their final analysis based on more than 10 years of research and 500 trillion particle collisions using the U.S. Department of Energy's Fermilab Tevatron collider near Batavia, Illinois, whose budgetary woes shut it down last year.

Their announcement came two days before researchers at the Large Hadron Collider under the Alps are due to unveil their latest results at an eagerly awaited seminar at the CERN particle physics laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland. "Our data strongly point toward the existence of the Higgs boson," Rob Roser, a spokesman for one of two independent experiments at the Tevatron, said in a statement. "But it will take results from the experiments at the Large Hadron Collider in Europe to establish a discovery."

Finding the Higgs boson would help explain the origin of mass, one of the open questions in physicists' current understanding of the way the universe works. The particle has been so difficult to pin down that the physicist Leon Lederman reportedly wanted to call his book "The Goddamn Particle." But he truncated that epithet to "The God Particle," which may have helped elevate the particle's allure in popular culture.

The results from the Tevatron, stemming from the two different experiments, suggest that if the Higgs boson does exist, it would have a mass between 115 and 135 GeV -- about 130 times the mass of the proton. Before the Tevatron closed, the experiments there sent beams of particles whizzing around a four-mile circumference in opposite directions. Traveling at a fraction below the speed of light, the particles would crash into each other, creating conditions similar to those at the dawn of the universe for scientists to observe.

But so far, neither the results from the U.S. collider experiments nor from the the Large Hadron Collider, located 328 feet underneath the border of France and Switzerland, have enough statistical significance to constitute a discovery. "It is easier to look for a friend's face in a sports stadium filled with 100,000 people than to search for a Higgs-like event among trillions of collisions," said Luciano Ristori, a physicist at the U.S. facility.

Attention now turns to the latest analysis of data from the $10 billion European machine, the world's most powerful particle smasher.

"We now have more than double the data we had last year," Sergio Bertolucci, the director for research and computing at CERN, said last month. "That should be enough to see whether the trends we were seeing in the 2011 data are still there, or whether they've gone away. It's a very exciting time." Scientists getting clearer picture of 'God particle'

Note: Yesterday news indicated that the Higgs boson was confirmed by physicists from Geneva, Switzerland( www.digitaltrends.com).