Northern Downpour (Panic at the Disco)

If all our life is but a dream
Fantastic posing greed
Then we should feed our jewelery to the sea
For diamonds do appear to be
Just like broken glass to me

And then she said she can't believe
Genius only comes along
In storms of fabled foreign tongues
Tripping eyes, and flooded lungs
Northern downpour sends its love

Hey moon, please forget to fall down
Hey moon, don't you go down

Sugarcane in the easy mornin'
Weathervanes my one and lonely

The ink is running toward the page
It's chasin' off the days
Look back at boat feet
And that winding knee
I missed your skin when you were east
You clicked your heels and wished for me

Through playful lips made of yarn
That fragile Capricorn
Unraveled words like moths upon old scarves
I know the world's a broken bone
But melt your headaches, call it home

Hey moon, please forget to fall down
Hey moon, don't you go down

Sugarcane in the easy mornin'
Weathervanes my one and lonely
Sugarcane in the easy mornin'
Weathervanes my one and lonely
Sugarcane in the easy mornin'
Weathervanes my one and lonely

Sugarcane (hey moon) in
(Hey moon) the easy mornin'
Weathervanes (hey moon) my
(Hey moon) one and lonely

Sugarcane (hey moon) in (hey moon)
The easy (hey moon) mornin'
Weathervanes (hey moon) my (hey moon)
One (hey moon) and lonely

[Continues in background:]
Sugarcane (hey moon) in (hey moon)
The easy (hey moon) mornin'
Weathervanes (hey moon) my (hey moon)
One (hey moon) and lonely

Hey moon, please forget to fall down
Hey moon, don't you go down
You are at the top of my lungs
Drawn to the ones who never yawn

Hey moon, please forget to fall down
Hey moon, don't you go down
You are at the top of my lungs
Drawn to the ones who never yawn

Single Ladies (lyrics) – Beyonce

All the single ladies (7x)
Now put your hands up
Up in the club, just broke up
I’m doing my own little thing
Decided to dip but now you wanna trip
Cuz another brother noticed me
I’m up on him, he up on me
Don’t pay him any attention
Cried my tears, three good years
Ya can’t be mad at me[Chorus]
Cuz if you liked it then you should have put a ring on it
If you liked it then you should have put a ring on it
Don’t be mad once you see that he want it
If you liked it then you should have put a ring on it

(Chorus)
I put gloss on my lips, a man on my hips
Hold me tighter than my Dereon jeans
Acting up, drink in my cup
I could care less what you think
I need no permission, did I mention
Don’t pay him any attention
Cuz you had your turn
But now you gonna learn
What it really feels to miss me

(Chorus)

Don’t treat me like things of this world
I’m not that kind of girl
Your love is what I prefer, what I deserve
He’s a man that makes me and takes me
And delivers me to a destiny, to infinity and beyond
Pull me into your arms
Say I’m not the one you own
If you don’t, you’ll be alone
And like a ghost, I’ll be gone

All the single ladies (7x)
Now put your hands up

(Chorus)

They

They say I should wear orange. Too bright for me.

They say go out with us.  Ain’t too sociable.

They say eat with us. Too expensive.

They say I  mustn’t be silent. I’m a man of few words.

They say I must know that. I really do.

They say don’t be silly. Who isn’t?

They say I can do it. They did. I didn’t.

They say be happy. I’m sad at times.

They say don’t refuse. I don’t know how.

They say I’m funny. They knew I am.

They say I’m a good friend. Can’t feel they are.

…

So…

I’m looking for another THEY.

Vital Signs – Designer Babies

Bring your partner, grab a seat, pick up your baby catalog and start choosing.

Would you be comfortable selecting what cosmetic features you want your baby to have?

Will you go for the brown hair or blond? Would you prefer tall or short? Funny or clever? Girl or boy? And do you want them to be a muscle-bound sports hero? Or a slender and intelligent book worm?

When you’re done selecting, head to the counter and it’s time to start creating your new child.

Does this sound like a scary thought?

With rapid advances in scientific knowledge of the human genome and our increasing ability to modify and change genes, this scenario of “designing” your baby could well be possible in the near future.

Techniques of genetic screening are already being used — whereby embryos can be selected by sex and checked for certain disease-bearing genes. This can lead to either the termination of a pregnancy, or if analyzed at a pre-implantation stage when using In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), can enable the pregnancy to be created using only non-disease bearing genes.

British scientists last week developed a “genetic MoT” test, which offers a universal method of screening embryos for diseases using a new technique of karyomapping, which is more efficient than previous processes.

The test would be taken on a two-day-old IVF embryo and is yet to be validated, but it could mark a significant change; allowing doctors to screen for gene combinations that create higher risks of diabetes, heart disease or cancer.

Experts estimate the test, if licensed by the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority, could be available for around $3000.

In the future we may also be able to “cure” genetic diseases in embryos by replacing faulty sections of DNA with healthy DNA, in a process called germ line therapy. This has been performed on animal embryos but is currently illegal for humans.

Furthermore, the developing technologies of genetic alteration open up a whole new set of possibilities — which could result in so-called “designer babies.”

The technique — known as inheritable genetic modification — modifies genes in eggs, sperm or early embryos and results in the altered genes being passed on to future generations. Should parents be allowed to create their babies?

This could potentially irreversibly alter the human species. So, the obvious question arises: should we be doing this?

Some countries have made genetic screening or alteration illegal by law, and the ethical questions surrounding the uses of the technology are vast — creating a palpable tension over the subject.

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In September, Internet giants Google and Microsoft withdrew adverts for sex selection products and other services considered illegal in India when they were threatened with legal action.

The Center for Genetics and Society is trying to encourage debate on the topic — as soon as possible.

Executive director of the organization, Richard Hayes, told CNN that the general public of most countries was missing out on taking part in the debate.

“The debate has taken place amongst scientists and science journalists, but average people feel overwhelmed with the technical detail. They feel disempowered.”

Hayes said his organization supported the use of embryo screening to help prevent the passing on of serious diseases and disorders like Cystic Fibrosis, but is wary of other technologies and how genetic screening and alteration can be misused.

“We support the use of that to allow couples at risk to have healthy children. But for non-medical, cosmetic purposes, we believe this would undermine humanity and create a techno-eugenic rat race,” Hayes said.

He said there were immense amounts of resources being poured into developing gene altering techniques and no laws in many countries to stop them from starting clinics that could offer selected cosmetic traits.

“As technology advances it is possible that any number of human characteristics in part influenced by genes could come under human control. Right now there is an enormous amount of research being conducted to correlate specific genes with specific characteristics.”

One of the organizations researching genetic alteration is the University of California Irvine’s Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center.

Professor of biological chemistry and developmental and cell biology, and co-director of the Center, Peter Donovan, feels the research could have massive benefits.

After his team discovered a greatly improved method for genetically manipulating human embryonic stem cells earlier this year, Donovan said:

“The ability to generate large quantities of cells with altered genes opens the door to new research into many devastating disorders.

“Not only will it allow us to study diseases more in-depth, it also could be a key step in the successful development of future stem cell therapies,” Donovan

But according to Hayes the potential for misuse of this technology could have dire consequences for the human race.

“This runs many risks. It’s used in many countries to avoid the birth of female children.

“The technologies are going to be accessible to affluent couples and would be used in ways that could increase inequality. The last thing we need now is a genetic elite.

“This designing aspect would also lead to an objectification of children as commodities.”

Hayes said it was important that people began debating the issues now so the correct “rules, regulations and regulatory oversights” could be established before the technology was complete and accessible.

YOUTUBE – on Their Go to Movies.

NEW YORK — For months, YouTube has been making a pitch to Hollywood studios: Give us your films, and we’ll make you money.

The studios balked. Sure, they reasoned, YouTube had a massive audience of 74 million monthly users. But the Google- (GOOG, Fortune 500)owned site only wanted to give them a share of its ad revenues. It wasn’t offering them any money upfront.

Now Hollywood is warming up to the Internet’s top video site. On Monday, YouTube will announce an ad-revenue sharing deal with MGM – home of James Bond, the Pink Panther and Rocky – that will let the site show full-length movies for the first time from a major Hollywood studio.

Jordan Hoffner, YouTube’s head of content partnerships, called the agreement a “watershed moment’ for the company: “We are really happy about MGM. They have an incredible library.”

It’s easy to understand why YouTube is excited. Founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen want the site to be more than just a destination for clips of skateboarding dogs, experiments involving Mentos and Diet Coke and the occasional Simpson episode that needs to be taken down immediately because of copyright infringement.

After all, there are only so many ads YouTube can put into a short clip like “Tiger vs. Bear.” A feature-length film like “Rocky IV” has room from many more marketing messages.

The site is already showing full-length independent movies like “Harold Buttelman, Daredevil Stuntman.” Now YouTube can boast that it has the kind of big budget movies that people can watch on Hulu.com., News Corp (NWS, Fortune 500).’s partnership with NBC Universal. (GE, Fortune 500)

There’s only one catch. MGM – owned by an investor group led by Providence Equity Partners, Sony and Comcast (CMST) – will only be posting only a few of its 4,000 movies on YouTube at first.

“I don’t think you are going to be seeing a James Bond movie on YouTube,” said Jim Packer, MGM’s co-president of worldwide television. “That’s a very special franchise for us. We are very cautions about where we put those movies.”

He said MGM would offer lesser-known movies that aren’t as easy to sell to television networks and on DVD. Its initially plan is to share films it also shows on Impact, its video-on-demand cable partnership with Comcast devoted to action movies.

The first MGM movie to go up on YouTube will be a Lone Wolf McQuade, a Chuck Norris vehicle, “Bulletproof Monk,” starring Chow Yun-Fat.

Packer said MGM is also thinking about creating a special YouTube site for women to show films like “Fame” and television shows from its vault such as “Cagney & Lacey.”

The YouTube deal would enable MGM to both make money on such less-sought-after content and also promote its DVD and theatrical releases, according to Packer.

“YouTube has a lot of traffic,” he said. “It’s no different from being in Wal-Mart. You want to be in a store that has a lot of traffic.”

Hoffner says YouTube expects to reach similar agreements soon with other movie studios. He points out that the site already has content-sharing partnerships with television networks like CBS (CBS, Fortune 500), BBC Worldwide, Fox, Showtime and HBO.

“We’ve launched longer form content, and the monetization is really kicking in,” Hoffner says. “This is a good time to get a partner like MGM up and run

Banila – The Real Deal

NO, he’s not a cyber-stalker. Or a group of psychology students doing a project. Or the government in disguise. Pablo Banila is a real person, but he’s not the crazy lowlife that people thought he was.

When the first Pablo Banila article came out in 2bU two weeks ago, we were swamped with hundreds of letters and blog comments from readers. The sentiments expressed in the mail were varied; they ranged from “Pablo Banila gives me the chills too,” to “He’s a psycho who not only views my Multiply site, but Friendster as well,” to “He’s actually a genius who was just misunderstood.”

Most of the readers were curious about his identity and wanted to know who he was, while a few thought an article about him was a waste of precious newspaper space. “Argh, you gave him more attention!” said a friend, wringing his hands. Another said, “Unbelievable, you made him famous! But in any case, he still gives off bad vibes and he’s still flooding my viewing history page with his gazillion accounts.” A blog reader was more blunt, saying, “Big deal. Slow news day?”

But in either case, Pablo Banila certainly caught your attention—and apparently, the article caught his too, because he e-mailed 2bU to give the real deal on his identity. He had explained his intentions in a UP Multiply blog at http://yoopee.multiply.com/journal/item/4805, but only a handful of internet users knew about it (compared to the millions of sites that he “visited”).

Pablo Banila—Paolo Bantolo in real life—has been called many names in the past couple of months, and a lot of them weren’t too nice. “Creepy” was the first thing that came to mind when Multiply and Friendster users first saw the avatar that showed a guy with matted chin-length hair and a sign that flashed, “Yes, Pablo Banila has a crush on you hahahaha! That’s why he viewed your homepage, cute nun!”

The reactions that the avatar elicited were interesting. Initially, people truly believed that the mysterious Pablo Banila had a crush on them, gender notwithstanding—until they visited his site and realized that they were duped.

“Before I opened up a guestbook, there were three general reactions from three kinds of people,” said Bantolo in an e-mail interview. “First, from the genuinely curious—people asking me if they do know me; in other words, people who did not bother reading my profile, the naked confession of everything I am.”

He added, “[The next were] from the genuinely infatuated—schoolgirls and baby boys telling me that I can be their boyfriend anytime! The rest were people with a sense of humor. Interestingly, most of my most passionate haters honestly believed that I had a crush on them until the grand opening of ‘Pablo Banila’s Never-ending Guestbook Party.’ [Then] they found out it wasn’t only them.”

The truth is, Pablo Banila never really visited every website where his avatar appeared—his bots did. An anonymous reader who identified himself as a retired hacker explained, “Pablo Banila actually is a programmer who uses a program called ‘web crawler.’ Web crawlers were originally used by search engines such as Google and Yahoo to automatically browse web pages on the internet. [This is done so they can] save the data on their database and make an index list of the web pages on the Internet.”

The reader added, “This is all done using a program. A program with a standard DSL connection can browse 10 sites every second, 600 sites every minute and 36,000 sites every hour—roughly 864,000 Multiply sites every day.”

Others who were already in the know admitted that he was a computer genius, if only slightly off his rocker. News that he came from top schools (Bantolo graduated from the Philippine Science High School and went on to study Computer Science at the University of the Philippines Diliman before transferring to New York University; he is currently a graduate student at California Riverside) only fueled the speculations about his being a crazy genius.

Others expressed their admiration and marveled at how he was able to pull off the scheme; others, like Multiply user “emocantbevanity” said, “He’s such a weirdo … why can’t he just get a life or something? Is he that much of a genius, that’s why he became a weirdo? Oh well, moral lesson—don’t be a genius and learn to socialize with other people so you wouldn’t become the country’s biggest weirdo!”

“I never thought of my viewing activity as stalking,” Bantolo said. “It was casual web surfing. What made the difference was my classic welcome message that penetrated the unawareness of the unspoken hope the viewing history promises in an avatar of a Lesbian in Shining Armor. I can honestly say that I wanted to meet new friends, and, ultimately, build a bridge of chance towards my one true love.”

According to Bantolo, he chose Multiply and Friendster “for the high demographic of Filipinos. And because I have not tried making new friends in other networks—but I will! Pretty soon!”

He added, “I wish I could click on millions of headshots for hours in a day, for that would’ve been like playing my favorite game, Counter-Strike; but that’s just impossible in my already inhumane schedule as a working student.”

And as for stalking—as soon as it was established that the only pages “Pablo Banila” visited were the homepages of the sites, which are essentially open to public viewing (as Multiply and Friendster have contacts-only lock options)—his viewing activities can hardly be counted as harassment.

Multiply user “agnestherese” said, “Pablo Banila is hardly a stalker. He only views homepages, not blogs or photos. I think that those who make such a big deal out of it, more specifically all the hate blogs, are self-centered or maybe just hurt when they found out that Pablo Banila has a crush on them … and everyone else.”

“Public domain is public domain,” Bantolo explained. “If they felt harassed in any way, it was because I kept exercising my right to view their public profile.” He further attributed the public’s fear and irritation to his “scarecrow headshot.”

He said, “People read about accusations, libel and death threats against me written on my guestbook. I am hated in exactly the same way other human beings discriminate against blacks, Muslims, and homosexuals.”

Bantolo added, “I performed the same routine using stereotypical images of innocence (young, attractive and female) at the same duration and received virtually no reaction.”

Actually, the entire issue is moot and academic, as “Pablo Banila” has already retired and given up his homepage-viewing days. But many users, unaware of what happened, remained in the dark for the past few weeks. As a final note, Bantolo quoted the California Penal Code’s definition of stalking:

Any person who willfully, maliciously, and repeatedly follows or harasses another person and makes a credible threat with the intent to place that person in reasonable fear for his or her safety is guilty of the crime of stalking.

“Credible threat” means a verbal or written threat, including that performed through the use of an electronic communication device.

He clarified, “I am not making a ‘credible threat’ nor do I intend to ‘place any person in reasonable fear for his or her safety.’”

Who in the world is Pablo Banila?

HE began as a series of mysterious avatars popping up on my Multiply viewing history. He didn’t bother me at first, because I was used to friendly strangers visiting my site. But when he began visiting on an almost daily basis—and under different usernames, although with the same avatar—I started to wonder who in the world was Pablo Banila.

Visits to his websites offered no clue. His avatar showed a creepy-looking guy with matted chin-length hair (think Severus Snape from Harry Potter) and a flashing sign that read, “Pablo Banila has a crush on you! That’s why he visited your website!”

That would have been almost flattering had I not already known that he had visited the websites of at least a hundred other people—all under different usernames and the same annoying avatar. He also has a dotcom, www.pablobanila.com, but it offers no clues, only rambling passages of text and close-up photos of himself.

People started complaining. “Please get a life, you pervert,” wrote one girl in her blog, after listing down his many usernames—pablobanila, ppaabblloobanila, rainbowinmycoffee, carrotperfume, laughingmankuze, edwardward, blackbetweenthestars, theblackbetweenthestars, etc. People left similar comments on that entry, saying, “OMG he viewed me too!” or “He views mine too, it’s so creepy!”

Others chimed in, “He views me every other day, more often than I check my own Multiply site,” while guys posted nervous comments like, “He checks me out too, and I’m a boy.”

So far, his visits to sites have been harmless (all he does is view homepages; he doesn’t leave comments), but creepy—there’s just no other word for it. Attempts to discover his identity have so far been futile. But identity aside, what everyone wants to know is, how does he find time to check out all those Multiply pages?

Is Pablo Banila actually a team of high school kids with nothing better to do?

Is Pablo Banila actually a group of college students doing a psychology research project for their thesis?

Is Pablo Banila a new Internet virus?

Is Pablo Banila actually just the government looking for suspected terrorists by combing through the pages of unsuspecting Multiply users?

Is Pablo Banila merely the victim of pranksters who are out to get him?

Or is Pablo Banila just really a sad person with no friends and nothing better to do?

In any case, Multiply users are waiting for an answer. But until then, Pablo Banila continues to stalk our websites—and our nightmares.

Long Walk to Freedom

article by: Bill Powell
review by: Me – Keelee

I have just finished reading Long Walk to Freedom (hereafter, LWTF) by Bill Powell. This article was the cover story of the Asia edition of TIME magazine last April 23, 2006. And I certainly believed that I had the good fortune of having been given a task of making a review of the article as a requirement for SSP2 (Asia and the World).

LWTF is a fascinating article mainly because it tells of one moving tale. Reading the article is like watching a television documentary – it brims with big names, drama, spectacular effects and of course, the trademark chest thumping. The article does tell how North Koreans risk their lives to reach freedom, with the aid of American Christians. It is also an expose into the life and death of North Koreans as they try to escape their homeland and China. The inside tale of one escape.
LWTF is a story that fills in a lot of gaps and sheds a lot of unanswered questions about what happens when a North Korean goes out of his or her borders. Kim Myong Suk was one of them.

Why do these people want to escape from their country and what happens if they are caught?

“My motivation was hunger, and also there is no freedom in North Korea. It is a closed society. Even though we were out of the (labor) camp, we fwlt we were locked up in that country” Kim says.

Here is Kim’s story.

February 1998 – Kim Myong Suk 9an alias she uses to protect herself and her relatives) was twenty years old when she fled from North Korea to China. She was immediately “sold off” into marriage. Her husband was a Chinese peasant from Heilongjiang, and it took time for Kim to grow her affection for him. Then she became pregnant. Unfortunately, on October of the same year, the Chinese police conducted their periodic raids in search of refugees from North Korea. Kim was one of those who were arrested. She was immediately sent back to North Korea and was sentenced to three years in labor camp. There, she was treated inhumanely and eventually lost her unborn child. But she was released under a special amnesty decree after one and a half year. Again, on March 2002, she escaped and was on China for a second time. Together with her sister and mother in the city of Mudanjiang, she met an ethnic Korean-Chinese man and got maried again. In China, there is a threat for them to get caught again, so Kim’s mom and sister decided to go to Seoul. Kim stayed in China. But her mother kept on worrying about Kim and said that she would do everything to get Kim out of North Korea and Chinese border. Finally, on October 2005, Kim’s case was brought to Rev. Tim Peters (an evangelical Christian pastor from Michigan) who runs the Seoul-based charity Helping Hands Korea – an organization aiming to assist North Koreans in crisis. Then they did the so called “underground operation”, the Seoul Train.

Having said that, let me share what struck me the most in the article: The very long process and the amount of money one should have in order to go through the secret route. The operation is different from any other rescue operations. It needs money, a meticulous plan and reliable people. There is no magic formula to know how many people and how much money is needed, hence, it varies in time and situation.

Today, there are an estimated 250,000 North Korean refugees living underground in China. They escaped a food crisis and other persecutions at home that have claimed the lives approxiamtely 3 million in the past ten years. As the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) stands idly by, the Chinese Government – in direct violation of international laws to which it is a party – systematically arrests and forcibly sends back hundreds of these refugees each month. Defecting from North Korea is a capital offense, and sent back refugees face human rights abuses ranging from concentration camps and torture to forcedabortion and summary executions.

For a lucky few refugees, however, there is hope. A group of multinational activists has taken it upon themselves to create an Underground Railroad. Via a network of safe houses and escape routes, the activists – at great perconal risk – help the refugees on daring escapes to freedom over hundreds 9and sometimes thousands) of miles of Chinese territory. This is an odyssey where betrayal and deceit lurk around every corner, and the price of getting caught likely means death. It is an epic tale involving years on the lam living in the underground shelters, North Korean and Chinese agents, double-crossings, covert border crossings, and the terror of what happens if they get caught.

In order to capture the essence and urgency of the current crisis, a story of one refugee (Kim) is told through interviews – and I will go on record to say that the article is very well written because of that. I tip my hat off to Bill Powell for thw wonderful manner in which he was able to weave the refugee’s story, the secret route and the North korean politicsinto one seamless tapestry. You follow the refuge from her arrival in China – before she begin her escape attempts – as she recount the horror she left behind. You also hear her fears of being caught and sent back to North Korea, where she knows her doomed fate.

In Seoul Train, you meet the activists on the front line, learn of the risks they take for their refugees and for themselves, and see firsthand the toll their work takes on them.

Their system of government is to blame for this situation surely.

North Korea is a classic example of the “rule of man.” Overall, political management is highly personalized and is based on loyalty to Kim Il Sung and the Korean Worker’s Party. The cult of personality, the nepotism of the Kim family and the strong influence of former anti-Japanese partisan veterans and military leaders are unique features of North Korean politics.