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The proposed "Right of Reply" law steps on the right of news media to publish what is fair and fitting by the industry's standards. By giving “aggrieved parties” the right to demand equal time and space on newspapers and television shows, the law effectively arrogates unto the “aggrieved parties” the right to mess around with a newspaper’s or TV show’s editorial policies.

So here's my suggestion to major media groups in case the bill, in its current incarnation, passes.

Day 1:
All major newspapers should carry the headline: "Nene Pimentel accused of beating up wife, abusing child." Somewhere below the headline is something about Monico Puentebella’s homosexual exploits in Sweden.

Of course these allegations are all false (as far as we know) so these blowhards invoke their right to reply law.

Day 2:
All the newspapers carry different headlines. Something like: Mike Arroyo is a big fat slob. The blowhards will not have enough time to craft a response to Day 1.

Day 3:
All the newspapers publish the response of the blowhards in their front pages. The headlines read something like: "I did not beat up my wife – Pimentel" and "I am not gay (not that there's anything wrong with that) – Puentebella."

But here’s the cool part. At the top of the page in heavy font, all the newspapers will announce: “For actual news that’s fit to print, see pages 2 and 3. Repeal the right to reply law.”

If they want to reply, let’s give them something to reply to.

DNDI Dies

Holy crap! The Philippines' best bassist's ticker just ticked out. Now how about a retrospective? If anyone deserves a tribute, it's this guy.  

Best pig in the world

Anthony Bourdain on pork sisig:

If you've never had this divine mosaic of pig parts, chopped and served sizzling and crisp on one side on a screaming hot platter, then you've yet to have one of the world's best beer drinking dishes.

from his blog post on his Philippine episode, which ranks Cebu lechon as the #1 pork in the world. This is from a guy who loves pork. Pity he didn't get to sample bagnet, which in Noel Vera's words, is the Incredible Hulk to chicharon's Bruce Banner, or the other dishes in the other islands he didn't get to visit. 

Anyhoo, here's what he ate in Cebu via Marketman. Dang I'm getting hungry. 

Hands-on design

Michael Bierut recalls his days as a graphic designer in the 80s, when personal computers (much less Macs) were unheard of and the job was still literally hands-on.

If you worked in a design studio in 1980, you were surrounded by colored paper, rubber cement, X-Acto knives and cans of aerosol spray glue. Our work, whether an annual report or a poster, was done by hand.

Today most kids who do graphic design don't even know what X-Acto knives are and aerosol glue is something the older art directors use to stick printed studies to foam boards for client presentations. Everything is done on computers which, we have to admit, made things faster but took away some of the craftsmanship in graphic design. 

What's ironic in Bierut's story is the fact that they were the ones who created the packaging for IBM's personal computers. 

All of us assumed that these machines were just fancy hybrids of typewriters and calculators. We did all the artwork with rubber cement, colored paper and paint. We had no idea, but we were looking at the beginning of the end, and the end came quickly.

Not that there's anything wrong with using computers. A good designer is a good designer regardless of the tools he uses. Bierut uses a computer now, as do most designers his age who are still active. What's deplorable is the idea that owning a pirated copy of Adobe Illustrator is enough qualification for anyone to design. 

This leads to abominations like CrowdSpring, which hold contests among "designers" in an attempt to corral cheap labor. According to the site's founder:

"The beauty of our site is that it doesn't matter if you have a degree from the Rhode Island School of Design or if you're a grandma in Tennessee with a bunch of free time and Adobe Illustrator," says Samson. "If the client likes the grandma's work better, then she's going to get the job."

Of course he fails to mention that a logo or an ad campaign is more that just pretty pictures painted on pixels by bored grandmas and struggling students. Besides, what the client likes isn't always what he needs. 

At least during Bierut's youth he can show a client around their workspace and give the impression that what they're doing is something the client can't. But clicking on a mouse? Grandma can do that, too.  

Instant Starbucks

Here's how you know the US economy is down. Starbucks, the company that trained the world to accept 2 dollar coffees, will start selling instant. 

Starbucks started as a purveyor of specialty beans. Content with educating people on fine coffee, the owners never planned to enter the coffeeshop business. Current CEO Howard Schultz, who used to run marketing for the old Starbucks, quit the company to put up Il Giornale, a chain of coffeeshops that eventually turned into the Starbucks we know now. (They bought the old company and appropriated the brand). 

His 1997 book "Pour Your Heart Into It" chronicled the growth of Starbucks. While reading it I can't help noticing that the company's growth is a series of compromises with the mass market. From developing the frappuccino (their "high-quality" answer to granitas) to offering coffee in supermarkets to streamlining the construction of new outlets, the company's development is the story of how vision gets blurry when you're millions in debt and have stockholders to answer to. 

So Starbucks instant isn't that big a surprise, tanking economy or not.    

This dystopia wins

George Orwell’s “1984” and Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” gave us two slightly different dystopias. While “1984” showed a totalitarian state that rewrites history to suit its needs, BNW posits a society that is too concerned with trivia to really care about “what’s going on.”

And while “1984” is the one that is in the pop culture radar (see Apple’s groundbreaking super bowl ad), Huxley’s oeuvre is the one that is proving to be prescient. Like Frank Herbert’s “Dune,” – which foresaw various oil crises and the dangers of monotheistic, violent religions espoused by desert people – “Brave New World” correctly predicted that pleasure, not fear, will reduce us into unthinking imbeciles.

It's easier when you have a "big brother" to fight. Being suppressed and silenced for your radical views isn't as frustrating as drowning in a sea of mediocrity. 

Is CafeSci for kids?

The last Cafe Scientifique I attended had a brain surgeon talk about the phenomenon of memory. Which was what I expected based on the other CafeScis I've read about online. This latest one had physics prof Ivan Culaba demonstrating how clouds are formed and how sunlight gets refracted to make the sky blue.

Which is all fine and dandy if, like 40% of the audience last Saturday, you were a kid.

But it's old hat for people like me who read science books and magazines and watch the Discovery channel for things other than big bikes. I was expecting something on stars and black holes. I wanted to ask an astrophysicist (or the closest thing we have) about dark matter and current theories in cosmology.

What I got was a series of (I admit, cool) demos that would've been great in physics class, but not for an afternoon soiree over coffee. Here's to hoping they get someone to talk about string theory next time.