IN the gospel, there is an episode where Christ told some unbelieving Jews the reason they could not know who Christ really was. “How long are you going to keep us in suspense?” they asked. “If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” (Jn 10,24).

And so, Christ had to tell them directly what was missing in them. “I told you and you do not believe,” he said. “The works I do in my Father’s name testify to me. But you do not believe, because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.” (Jn 10,25-27)

Lest we think there are some of us who do not belong to Christ’s sheepfold, we have to clarify that all of are meant to be among the sheep of Christ. The problem is that some of us, for one reason or another, choose not to be part of that sheepfold. And that can happen when in spite of everything that God through Christ in the Holy Spirit has shown, given and enabled us, we refuse to believe in him.

It’s a matter of whether we have faith or not, a faith that first of all is given to us by God himself but to which we have to correspond also. And that is where the problem lies. We often fail to do our part insofar as faith in Christ is concerned.

Many times, we just rely on what our senses and, at most, our intelligence can show us, as if they are the ultimate guide for us to know the truth of things in general, let alone, the truth about God, about Christ, etc.

We fail to realize that it is God who defines everything since he is first of all the Creator of all things. And even if we messed up his creation because of our sin, he has precisely sent us his Son who became man just to be with us and offer us “the way, the truth, and the life” that is proper to us.

The thing is for us to correspond to the faith God is sharing with us, we need to humble ourselves to be able to enter into the spiritual and supernatural character of this faith. We need to free ourselves from what practically can be considered as our enslavement to our human ways of knowing that rely simply on our senses and other human faculties.

We, of course, have to use these faculties, and in fact, we have to use them to the hilt. But they need to be guided always by faith. Without this guidance of faith, there is no way our senses and our other human faculties can capture the objective reality of God and of how everything else has to be seen, understood and used.

We have to be wary of our strong tendency to simply be guided by our human ways. Especially to those who appear to be quite gifted intellectually and in the other human faculties, the need to humble themselves would be great so that the workings of faith can be properly received and corresponded to.

This is how we can recognize the voice of Christ who is actually the pattern of our humanity and the savior of that humanity that has been damaged by our sin. Only with Christ can we see, understand and use things properly. Only with him can we be brought back to our original and ultimate dignity as children of God, his image and likeness, sharers of his divine life and nature!

A new high production technology for Tilapia culture is being introduced to increase harvest. The technology, being pilot-tested is called Aquashading. The technology was developed by the fishery researchers of Central Luzon State University (CLSU) aimed “to raise the country’s tilapia production.

However, it will be the technical staff of the Aquaculture Research and Development Division (ARDD) of the National Fisheries Research and Development Institute (NFRDI) who will pilot-test the technology – taking note of the technical performance of aquashading technology with or without shading Type I and Type III agro-climatic conditions or those that have dry and wet seasons.

As perceived by the CLSU researchers, aquashading technology aims to increase tilapia seed production (fingerlings) and ensure income among tilapia hatchery and grow-out operators. The “technology reduces water temperature to make it favorable for breeding and increasing the seed production of tilapia in in the ponds.” The reduction of water temperature during the hottest hours of the day can significantly increase the spawning rate and seed production.

Two-proposed on-station verification studies are: for Type I located at NFRDI’S Freshwater Fisheries Research and Development Center (FFRDC) in Butong, Taal, Batangas, and the Type III located in the Brackishwater Fisheries Research and Development Center (BFRDC), in Lala, Lanao del Norte. There are two more proposed sites in Samar and Pangasinan.

A modified Corona Classification of Climate and according to NFRDI there are four climate types in the Philippines, thus:

1) Type I is dry from November to April and wet during the rest of the year;
2) Type II has no dry season with a very pronounced maximum rain period from December to February;
3) Type III has no very pronounced maximum rain period with a short dry season from 1 to three months; and,
4) Type IV has rainfall that is more or less evenly distributed throughout the year.
The CLSU technologists suggest the use of greenhouse nets installed over the pond to provide shade to the cultured tilapia. The shade provided by the net reduces the water temperature by 3-4 degrees Celcius that contributes the fish’s chance of reproducing more fish by 100 percent in pond- based and hapa-based systems.
Early tilapia aquaculturists who “. . .adopted the aquashading technology gained an estimated 14 percent return of investment (R0I) and an estimated payback period of fewer than two years”

MY COMMENT:
Being product of research and development, aquashading should be encouraged among businessmen engaged in tilapia aquaculture, in terms of ROI. The NFRDI should transfer the said technology to help food security problem of the country. And that more pilot cum verification sites should be explored, especially in the Visayas – there is dire need to improve the lot among fisherfolks and aquaculturist sector, particularly in Eastern Visayas.
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It would be unwise to disregard the signs of the times, it would be disastrous not to prepare for the same.

When Nokia was on the top of Cellular Phone business in the late 90s and early 2000s I was thinking that no phone will be ever made other than that Finland brand. In my mind it was the epitome of great engineering hard, durable, ingenious, functional and effective. But we knew the story, as Android Operating System came, Nokia, refused to adjust and now they are mostly gone.

Maggi Noodles was staple in every Filipino household, it was the main noodle soup and the market share was huge. In 2011, suspicion of Salmonella contamination was there and Maggi Noodles was recalled and today no Sari sari store shelf has that major staple. Maggi, failed to prepare for a safety issue and that ultimately ended its reign.

Nokia and Maggi are immensely popular in their heydays and now they are extinct.
At present, the education system is obviously to a large extent dependent to Information Technology. From Hardware (computers, PCs, Laptops, Projectors, recording devices, memory sticks, camera etc…) to Softwares ( Windows OS, Linux etc…)Education also has Search Engines in Google, Bing etc…Applications Canva, Video Recording Apps. Zoom, Teams, Google Meet etc…

In a nutshell, our education ways and means now are dependent on Information Technology and we cannot say for certain that it’s a dependence to a large extent or to a certain significant extent, but we can say for certain that we are not joking that indeed the dependence is there.

What would happen if the dependence become more intense and more significant? What would happen if the education as we knew it change to be more Computer based and less human based? Right, now Artificial Intelligence had became more involved in our lives than ever before and it may take over our jobs in the future. Appearing in Sensorium a Blog posts this alarming title 10 Signs that AI will Soon Replace (And Those That It Wont )
• Customer Service Representatives. …
• Receptionists
• Accountants/ Bookkeepers
• Salespeople
• Taxi and Truck Drivers
• Retail Services
• Proofreaders and Translators
• Security and Military Personnel

And soon enough , Teaching and of course teachers. Will Robots or Artificial Intelligence take our jobs away ? It may be sooner than expected. For teachers like me, it may be something we may not welcome but it is an inconvenient truth that will come.

How can we mitigate its take over ?Let me count the ways …

1. Educators must waste no time in reinventing itself as Educators. Human Touch in Tactile and Emotional Sense is something that AI cannot easily replicate nor provide, humans can take consolation on the fact that we are capable of that more than AI.
2. Harness the power of AI and use it to make teaching relevant and wonderful. Instead of fighting the trend, harness its advantage to be more relevant.
3. Find the niche beyond the knowledge level and go beyond. Since knowledge or information is nearly in abundance in our search engines , we can go to mindfulness, philosophy and other humanistic pursuits, Artificial Intelligence cannot easily out ran there.
For now this looms as a real challenge and these list is an informal list subject to the realities that will change it. Let us never stop moving ahead.