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Thursday, July 25, 2019

Jester's Canned Thoughts

Over the past few weeks, there have been a few issues that came out. Some are political, some scientific, and some are trivial. And I would like to give my thoughts about those. These are issues are a few weeks old, therefore my thoughts were somewhat, canned.

Issue 1: How difficult is it to open a Busog Meal at 711?

It is quite difficult to open one of those packed meals. The box is just sealed with a few adhesive tape strips on the sides. However, the tape seems to have a very strong adhesion to the box. So a few tips:
a) Have the cashier open it up for you. They usually have a cutter or a pair of scissors at the counter.
b) Use you plastic utensils to help you open the pack. Just in case you forgot to ask the cashier to open it up for you.
c) Take it home. I'm sure you have various cutting tools at home.

Issue 2: Philippine fishing vessel rammed by Chinese ship.

Whether or not they were rammed, the Filipinos should at least take the side of their fellow Pinoy. I saw a lot of Filipino posts on social media saying that the fishermen were at the wrong. Scolding a fellow Pinoy is fine as long as we do it among ourselves and not announcing it to the whole world. Doing it in public does not make us righteous.

Issue 3: As a follow up of the above issue, China having given the right to fish in our territorial waters.

"Giving up because you know you can't win," is a good plan. But being the head of state and showing that your tail is between your legs is not really a good image for a leader. You just let a neighbor come to your home and raid your fridge, literally.

Issue 4: Vinegar, the synthetic and the naturally produced. According to the Philippine FDA, "Vinegar is the liquid produced by alcoholic and/or acetous fermentation of onw (yes, I kept the type-o) or more of the following: malt, spirit, vine, cider, alcoholic liquors,

According to the Philippine FDA, "Vinegar is the liquid produced by alcoholic and/or acetous fermentation of onw or more of the following: malt, spirit, vine, cider, alcoholic liquors, fruits, grain, vegetables, honey, glucose, sugar (including unrefined crystal sugar and refinery syrups, or mollasses," and "Distilled vinegar is the liquid produced by acetous fermentation of dilute distilled alcohol or by the distillation of vinegar." And take note, I kept the typographical errors intact.

A technical description of vinegar is, "an aqueous solution of acetic acid and trace chemicals that may include flavorings. Vinegar typically contains 5-20% acetic acid by volume."

Synthetic or natural, when it comes down to the chemistry of it, they are the same. There is no difference, just the source. We consume many synthetic foodstuffs that we just do not notice it. Vanilla, for example, is made abundant by being synthesized. Using natural vanilla is very expensive. If you want naturally flavored vanilla ice cream, be ready to cough out the dough.

The definition of the Philippine FDA is so old that it was even typewritten. It was probably drafted during the time when FDA was still BFAD. So it was never updated. The definition is still true, it just needs to be updated. For someone who is from a scientific background to say that artificially prepared vinegar should not be called vinegar is just… dumb.

Issue 5: And this happens to be my favorite (so far), Isko Moreno.

What can I say? So far, he is doing good. No, not good, great. Yorme Isko is very hands-on and very is making his presence felt very early in his term. He has a lot of videos on YouTube. He does Facebook live while he goes around the city. He is creating buzz and is becoming somewhat of a benchmark when it comes to being a mayor. He raised the bar, so to speak. It makes me want to be a resident of Manila City. I just hope he sustains this momentum he generated.

Those are the issues that I want to share my opinions about… so far. There would be more in the coming days. I just wanted to live up to my blog's title every once in a while.

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