MANILA, Philippines—A US scientist admonished Pangasinan Representative Mark Cojuangco for “dangerously misrepresenting” a scientific study in a bid to make the lawmaker’s proposal to reopen the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) “look good.”

Dr. Kelvin Rodolfo, professor emeritus of the University of Illinois Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, said he was dismayed Cojuangco misused the 2005 study the American and two fellow scientists made.

“I am dismayed that our paper was cited by Cojuangco in his exploratory note. He is being ignorant of scientific data,” said Rodolfo.

Cojuangco authored a House bill seeking to revive the $2.3-billion BNPP mothballed over two decades ago.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

We recently got this feedback from Mr. Romeo Ybanes.

Why haven’t your reporter and editor realized until this Feb. 12 issue that the ‘dolphins’ that were stranded in Bataan were in fact melon-headed whales. He could have asked the animal experts that checked the whales for the correct identity of the species. I’m sick and tired of reading wrong information in prestigious newspapers like PDI. This is the result of reporters who don’t check the facts before reporting.

This article written by INQUIRER.net reporter Alex Villafania identifies these animals stranded off the coast of Bataan as Melon-headed whales.

MANILA, Philippines – Tuesday’s stranding of an unusual number of melon-headed whales in the coast of Pilar, Bataan should spur the government to pursue more studies on the country’s marine mammals, an expert said Wednesday.

The story further quotes an expert that says that the melon-headed whales (Peponocephala electra) are listed under the family Delphinidae, commonly known as dolphins.

Also, check out this slideshow of actual photos of the stranded melon-headed whales:

On Tuesday morning, news of hundreds of dolphins stucked in the shallow waters in Bataan baffled scientists from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR). What could have driven these animals to shore at the risk of drowning.

According to one Filipino scientist, the dolphins could be reacting to a “heat wave or disturbance at sea” such as a possible major underwater earthquake.

Some interesting details from the Izah Morales’ story on INQUIRER.net:

Dolphins, which are mammals, have ears that are sensitive to large changes in pressure underwater, he said.

“If their eardrums are damaged they become disorientated and they float up to the surface.”

…smaller schools of dolphins numbering “in the tens and twenties” had beached themselves elsewhere in the Philippines previously, but this was the first time so many had done so at the same time and place.

This story was eventually picked up by foreign media, including the Daily Mail, which collated photos of the phenomenon.

What drove those animals to swim to shallow waters?

(Photo courtesy of AFP)

Agence France-Presse

LONG BEACH–US university researchers have created a portable “sixth sense” device powered by commercial products that can seamlessly channel Internet information into daily routines.

The device created by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) scientists can turn any surface into a touch-screen for computing, controlled by simple hand gestures.

The gadget can even take photographs if a user frames a scene with his or her hands, or project a watch face with the proper time on a wrist if the user makes a circle there with a finger.

[Read the rest of this entry »]