“Boycott Sci Journals!” Nobel Winner Says; “Make Sci Journals Attract Climate Change Research!” The Editor In Chief Says

Nobel Prize 2013 winner American biologist Randy Schekman called for a boycott of sci/tech journals 10 years ago yet. His reason: “Many journals are more concerned [with] getting clicks than publishing the best science” (Ian Sample, “Nobel Winner Declares Boycott Of Top Science Journals,” 09 Dec 2013, The Guardian, theguardian.com). Very much more relevant, 2023.

Now, referring to myself as “The Editor In Chief” (TEIC) in digital print since 05 March 2020 (“Is William Dar Sleeping On The Job, Or BusinessMirror Sleeping With The Mouse?” Re-Discovering Heroes,  blogspot.com), I Agriculturist and TEIC say, “Better than boycotting people – convince sci journals to attract papers addressing Agriculture and Climate Change!” “Publish or Perish” applies to both scientists and sciences.
{“Publish” from thegamecrafter.com)

And what credentials have I to claim being “The Editor In Chief” in all the digital universe? My accomplishments:

1, 1975-1980, Typewriter-based publications – Founder & The Editor In Chief of the monthly newsletter Canopy, quarterly technical journal Sylvatrop, and quarterly color magazine Habitat, the 3 publications of the Forest Research Institute.

2, 1985: Typewriter-based ommercial publishing. At the Farming Systems & Soil Resources Institute (FSSRI) of UP Los Baños. My last non-digital book that I produced was Focus On The Small Farmer, 138 pages, published by FSSRI in 1985. Then I began teaching myself digital works.

3, 2001-2008 , The Editor In Chief. This was of the Philippine Journal of Crop Science (PJCS) at the time when the PJCS was late by 9 trimestral issues! As TEIC for PJCS, I was the only staff for PJCS! As TEIC, I made the PJCS up-to-date in 3 years – and with my quality editing, the PJCS became included in the coveted international list of journals called ISI (now “Web of Knowledge”).

4, 2007-2014, desktop publishing – In 2000, I started blogging. For 2007-2014, I was Writer From Home (WFH) for the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). ICRISAT published 7 books with the contents all digitally produced by this WFH.

Now then, instead of boycotting those international sci journals, let us encourage them to accept – with pleasure and treasure – quality technical papers that deal with researchable aspects of Farmer Poverty and Climate Change!

I do declare: In relation to the people and the planet, that the utmost concern of science today should be: Regenerative Agriculture (RA). Why? RA is designed to
solve Farmer Poverty and
resolve Climate Change!

And so this TEIC is encouraging the State Colleges & Universities in the Philippines to conduct studies on how to –

(1)          clean up Climate Change with regards to greenhouse gases (GHGs) produced in Chemical Agriculture (CA).

(2)          improve the business situation in agriculture so that even small farmers will gain big, via Regenerative Agriculture.

What kind of research can be done in the name of Regenerative Agriculture? See my list of 13 that I call “Good Pluck 13” (05 Nov 2023, “Mixing Business With Pleasure Serving The Country – Would New PH Secretary of Agriculture Francisco Tiu Laurel Demonstrate It?” Rediscovering Heroes, blogspot.com).

For Creativity, My Keyboard Lessons Are More Than Mechanical – They Are Lessons For Setting The Mind Free For Rich Thinking

I have been blogging using the same brand of PC keyboard since 2000 – the A4TECH. Above, Christine Joy Bagalanon Refresca shares on Facebook Friday the Thirteenth 2023 Samir Kumar Bardhan’s illustrated post on the topics “Hand Position On Keyboard,” “Fast Typing Tips,” “Introduction To Computer Keyboard,” Keyboarding Chart,” and some Ctrl shortcuts.

Samir explains not in English, so I cut him off, literally. Yes, the PC keyboard is extremely important to me as a digital writer, editor, desktop publisher, and blogger. Today, even as I just turned 83 (thank God!), I blog every single day, meaning – I type, delete, rephrase, correct, spell-check, move a sentence or two, then compose an illustrative image with my text – all the while using the PC keyboard.

Yes, my favorite keyboard is the A4TECH, and from a PH seller of digital tools labelling itself “Thinking Tools Inc” – yes, the PC keyboard is a thinking tool!

Yes, my A4TECH is my indispensable gadget for thinking out each one of my essays – I have mastered the keys so that I can type with an almost 100%accuracy without looking! That means I can concentrate almost 100% on thinking and writing out my thoughts and editing them with pleasure!

And oh yes, I am using in composing my essays Microsoft Word 2016 – you got that right, not MS 2019, not MS 2020, not MS 2021, not MS 2023, not MS 365.

If you then call me a backward digital warrior – I will know that you don’t understand not only PC keyboarding but using the shortcuts of your word processing software. Those hundred MS 2016 shortcuts I have memorized help me escape Hell, typing such entries as ALLCAPS, Small Caps, italics for scientific names, names of sources like “Rappler” – I type "rappler" and it becomes “Rappler” as I press the spacebar.

Not to forget my name; when I type “frank a hilario” (yes, no caps), MS Word 2016 turns it automatically into “Frank A Hilario” when I press the spacebar.

And how do I turn a whole paragraph like this into large print automatically? I type the paragraph first, go to the first word (Ctrl+Up), select the whole paragraph (Ctrl Down) – then Ctrl+(Plus) 5 times. No sweat.

An indefatigable writer, here is what I wrote 6+ years ago (“Tuesday, 27 June 2017: Live & Let Die, AHA!” iPursuit Of Knowledge, blogspot.com):

I taught myself digital writing in 1985, and I have not stopped self-exploring the wonders of the digital world since then. Right now, I have 2 monitors: my Lenovo at 14 inches and my ViewSonic at 22 inches, and I have 4 windows of Word 2013 documents open, 4 different files, 2 at each monitor on "cascade" view, I have an external keyboard (the ergonomic A4TECH), and I have my mouses left and right – so I am armed to the teeth, easy to jump from one essay to the other as I write and rewrite and rewrite.

A4TECH, thank you for inventing this wonderful keyboard. Mwah!@517

“Never Again!” Shouts UP Head Angelo A Jimenez, Lawyer. “Ever A Gain!” Shouts UP Alum Frank A Hilario, Creative Writer & Editor

And this (from Facebook): “Bishops Remember Rights Victims On Martial Law Anniversary.” UP alumni and not, they distinctly remember The Negative and shout, “Never again!” 51 years have passed and they remember only the bad. The Positive I shout, “Creative Freedom Is Good Where Academic Freedom Is Bad!” 
(“Never” from facebook.com/esc.upd)

UP System President Angelo A Jimenez says, “I enjoin the whole UP community to participate in ‘We Remember,’ a series of activities that will commence with ‘Noises And Voices Of Memory And Dissent’, a ‘noise-making’ event on 21 Sept 2023, 12:00 NN-1:00 PM.”

Up to now, I am the one and only “Outstanding Alumnus For Creative Writing” in the entire 100+ years of the entire UP System (check out “Frank A Hilario, Outstanding Alumnus for Creative Writing, 2011,” 19 May 2013, The Los Baños Esprit, thelbesprit.blogspot.com).

And now, thinking inventively, I enjoin the entire UP System to be ingenious and think of any “Ever A Gain!”

Concrete Example from UP Alumni: I am an agriculturist, BSA major in Ag Edu (2.36 weighted average); I am now thinking of “Cooperatives As Drivers Of Rural Growth” by William Dar (21 Sept 2023, Manila Times, manilatimes.net). Note: That Times column appeared on Martial Law Day – but UP Alum Mr Dar was not thinking of “Never Again” but instead, if I may say so, “Ever A Gain!”

Whether UP Alumni or not, instead of being Disruptive, we Filipinos must be Cooperative! Here is a concrete example from UP Los Baños PhD alum (1980) and former Secretary of Agriculture William Dar (his Times column I already mentioned above).

There, Mr Dar says:

THE global agricultural landscape is currently undergoing many changes, from adoption of more sustainable or eco-friendly systems, to digitalization. And the country's agriculture sector must not be left behind.

PH has been left behind!

One of the countries that [have] taken bold steps to level up its agriculture sector is India, with a member of the Indian government's public policy think tank agency NITI Aayog saying that the government will increase the number of cooperatives nationwide.

Specifically, NITI Aayog member Ramesh Chand said that the Indian government will establish cooperatives in every village of the country where there is still no cooperative.

Mr Dar quotes Mr Chand as saying “the Indian government’s call” is for “Prosperity through cooperation.” We UP alumni, instead of counter-operating, we should be co-operating! Being active members of cooperatives should teach us much more than UP ever did! UP is good, but not (yet) good enough!

Mr Dar says:

Another big development from India for its agriculture sector is the onboarding of 1,600 farmer producer organizations in the Open Network Digital Commerce…

[This] is a big step to linking farmers directly to the market for their products through digital channels. … India is forging ahead with this as that country is the leader globally in the information technology-business process management industry.

And we Filipinos? We are laggards when it comes to information technology!@517

“Success Stories Of Filipino Farmers” – Why Have Not “Agriculture Monthly” Featured Hundreds, Thousands, Nay Hundreds Of Thousands Of Them!?

A Google hound, I was googling for “success stories” of PH farmers and I saw these (above images): “Success Stories Of Filipino Farmers” (from youtube.com) and “Agriculture Monthly” (from Facebook facebook.com/agriculturemagazine). The YouTube webpage is showing only one success story; the Facebook page likewise shows only one story.

I ask now: “Why cannot they list, say 5-10 success stories of Filipino farmers at any one time – they don’t know? The honest answer is: They can’t find such a number!

In the 1960s, my father, Lakay Disiong (Dionisio), was a farmer and one of the “successful” farmers in our hometown Asingan, Pangasinan. That is, he could pay back his debts and have some money left for the rest of the year – and more. But he could not afford to send 2 boys to college at the same time – and UP College of Agriculture (UPCA, now UP Los Baños) was hardly expensive!

Why because my father was engaged in Chemical Agriculture (CA) – applying chemical fertilizers and chemical pesticides, which are expensive. CA is High Costs, so? Low Returns! That’s the economics I know – and hate.

I studied for my BS Agriculture (major in Ag Edu) at UP College of Agriculture (UPCA) 1960-1965, but I never heard about Organic Agriculture (OA). Our lecturers and instructors had not been instructed on OA themselves. I blame the Americans who founded UPCA. When I ransacked the UPCA library in the mid-1960s, I did not find OA books or articles in American magazines.

How can the millions of Filipino farmers be successful in their farming when their costs are high and their returns are low?!

My recommendation: For hardworking Filipino farmers to be as highly successful as they deserve, they have to be assisted by government in shifting to Regenerative Agriculture (RA), RA methods being essentially organic. A few RA examples that farmers already are familiar with: intercropping, green manuring, and relay cropping. The chemical fertilizers and pesticides applied are preventing millions of farmers from becoming financially successful!

More. Now then, to me, with Regenerative Agriculture a successful farmer generates each one of these:

(1)   Healthy soils

(2)   Healthy crops

(3)   Healthy harvests

(4)   Healthy foods

(5)   Healthy markets

(6)   Healthy pockets

(7)   Healthy villages.

What we have are millions of farmer dreamers!

Published by the Manila Bulletin, Agriculture Monthly is now 16 years old, starting with Zac Sarian as founding Editor In Chief. The magazine is now digital – where are stories of farmers who have transcended their poverty themselves?!

And no, Agriculture Monthly has not discovered Regenerative Agriculture – why not?

And no, the magazine is not talking about organic agriculture much, so it cannot do much about increasing the number of successful Filipino farmers on its pages!

If I were Editor In Chief of Agriculture Monthly, I would feature hundreds if not thousands of essentially organic farmers and gardeners. Or with external funding, I could start a new magazine – if you don’t know me, you can visit my blog “The Editor In Chief”, the-editor-in-chief.blogspot.com).@517

Autobiography Of The Ilocano Wonder Boy From Central Luzon, Now 82+ – Frank A Hilario

He is from Asingan, Pangasinan, which is next to Carlos Bulosan’s hometown of Binalonan, which is next to Jaime C Laya’s native town of San Manuel, which is close to F Sionil Jose’s beloved town Rosales. Wonder: What is in Eastern Pangasinan that breeds writers?

He was born on 17 Sept 1940 to simple folks: Dionisio Hilario (farmer) and Sixta Agapito (housewife).

And now, the wonders of it all:

Before Grade 1 – He wondered if he could teach himself to read the Ilocano magazine Bannawag – and he could.

High School – He wondered what the Reader’s Digest could teach him – and he learned how to be creative in American English.

College – He wondered at UP Los Baños if he could become the Editor In Chief of the student newspaper Aggie Green & Gold (AGG). Nestor Maniebo Pestelos became Editor and made him AGG Tagalog Editor. So, he became the first Ilocano who became the Tagalog Editor of a student paper!

Before college graduation – He wondered if he could pass PH’s very first Teacher’s Exam, and he could, 80.6%.

After college – He wondered if he could teach at the Asingan High School, and he could.

1966 – He wondered if he could handle at UPLB the lab class Horticulture 1 (not his major), and he could.

1967 – He wondered what would happen if he distributed copies of the open letter from his would-be daughter, “What Did You Do In The War, Daddy?” This was questioning the “Loyalty Day” celebration of UP Los Baños. It is no wonder that he was kicked out of UPLB!

1968 – He wondered if 1,270 km away from Laguna, Xavier University College of Agriculture (XUCA) would accept him as a teacher, and XUCA did. At XUCA, he wondered  how the students would respond to his lectures on Organic Agriculture, a historical first, and they welcomed it. One of his students, Nicanor “Nicky” Perlas became a Right Livelihood Award recipient years later.

1969-1973 – He just wondered about the world not paying attention to the Ilocano Wonder Boy From Asingan.

1974-1975 – He wondered if he could create excellent copy for advertisers as a copywriter of the Pacifica Publicity Bureau, and he could.

1975-1980 – He wondered if he could be the typewriter-based simultaneous founder, writer, editor & publisher of the 3 publications of the Forest Research Institute: monthly Canopy, quarterly technical journal Sylvatrop, and quarterly color magazine Habitat – and he could.

1985-1988 – He wondered if he could learn to use the personal computer for his writing and editing – and he could.

2003-2008 – He wondered if he could be The Digital Editor In Chief of the 3-years late Philippine Journal of Crop Science and bring it up to international standards in quality and quantity – and he could.

2011 – He wondered what surprises UP Los Baños had in store for him and, in 2011, he received the award “Outstanding Alumnus For Creative Writing” from the alumni association. So far the one and only in the entire UP System.

Thank God, Frank A Hilario has continued to wonder…@

Is ChatGPT A Threat To Human Intelligence? You Are Not Intelligent If You Think That – Get Intuit!

Today, from Ramon Yedra’s Facebook sharing, I can sense that the physical presence and actual use of robots with artificial intelligence (AI) are now both enchanting and dis-enchanting humans.

Jack Kelly says, “Goldman Sachs Predicts 300 Million Jobs Will Be Lost Or Degraded By Artificial Intelligence” (31 March 2023, Forbes, forbes.com):

If generative AI lives up to its hype, the workforce in the United States and Europe will be upended, Goldman Sachs reported this week in a sobering and alarming report about AI's ascendance. The investment bank estimates 300 million jobs could be lost or diminished by this fast-growing technology.

That’s a big “If.”

In “What Is Artificial Intelligence (AI)?” (undated, TechTarget, techtarget.com), Ed Burns, Nicole Laskowski & Linda Tucci say:

The term AI… refers to the simulation of human intelligence by machines. It covers an ever-changing set of capabilities as new technologies are developed. Technologies… include machine learning and deep learning.

I Man say, “Machine learning is memory work, that’s all, logic and all.”

OpenAI says its creature ChatGPT can “generate creative writing pieces” (“ChatGPT: Revolutionary Chatbot by OpenAI,” 2023, chat-gpt.org/#). Huh?

Thomas Reese writes, “Help! I Have Been Replaced By An AI” (31 March 2023, National Catholic Reporter, ncronline.org). Fair warning to humans? Mr Reese says:

After I sent a Jesuit lawyer an analysis from the Brookings Institution on how rapid advances in artificial intelligence could revolutionize the legal profession, he got even by asking ChatGPT to write "a column on AI, written in the style of Thomas Reese, SJ."

The robot made use of the weekly columns Mr Reese has been writing for more than 20 years, he says. Here is the first paragraph of that AI draft (unedited):

As a Jesuit priest, I have always believed that our human capacity for reason and thought is one of the greatest gifts that we have been given. In the last few decades, however, we have witnessed a new and powerful tool emerge: artificial intelligence (AI). While AI has undoubtedly brought about a host of benefits, it has also given rise to concerns about its impact on human dignity and autonomy.

“Good first draft,” Mr Reese says. As a creative writer & teacher, I Frank A Hilario say:

Whatever your AI, it simply/complicatedly makes sense of what is already there – it cannot add anything new. It does not, it cannot add any insight to what it generates from what is already there. AI does not get intuit! No threat to human creative thinking, only to critical thinking.

Let your ChatGPT find out how many intelligences humans have, and who is the human who got intuit – ChatGPT has only a single intelligence. It’s as simple – and complicated as that.

As a creative writer, certainly I am not bothered. Certainly, ChatGPT is lightning-fast, composing text and judging-correcting with logical and mathematical precision, but it adds nothing new, generates no original insight by itself. Only a human can have insights, plural. Insight is not mechanical. Think, Human – get Intuit!@517
(“Insight” from formpl.us/blog)

As A Teacher, I Believe Honor Is Not A Battle Of The Sexes But A Battle Of The Minds!

As I blog this, it’s “April Fool’s Day” 2023. Is it “Intelligent” to say/see that this world is essentially “A Battle Of The Sexes,” between male and female? I male do not believe so. I think we have been fooled all the time!

As a teacher, creative writer and Internet explorer, haha, I believe that it is “A Battle Of The Minds.” That is to say, what is seen as a battle of the sexes, the males dominating the females, is actually a battle of discovering/recognizing new knowledge – and the not-so-intelligent minds, mostly males it appears, do not usually comprehend it!

From this Facebook sharing of Grace Obien-Culannay that I saw Sunday, 26 March 2023  I am reading Janes Valliere (Facebook, Weird & Beautiful Things, facebook.com):

Since her death in 1979, the woman who discovered what the universe is made of has not so much as received a memorial plaque. Her newspaper obituaries do not mention her greatest discovery… The textbooks simply say that the most abundant atom in the universe is hydrogen. And no one ever wonders how we know.

That, says Ms Janes, is “Jeremy Knowles discussing the complete lack of recognition Cecilia Payne gets, even today, for her revolutionary discovery.” Everyone seemed to be against her getting to know more, to become more known – why, even “Cecilia Payne’s mother refused to spend money on her college education”!

But Cecilia was so good she won a scholarship to Cambridge. When you are good, you are better than the level where people put you, including your own mother.

Cecilia completed her studies, but Cambridge wouldn’t give her a degree. But when you are good, you are as stubborn as a mule, and she moved to the United States. There, she became the first person ever to earn a PhD in astronomy from Radcliffe College.

Richard Williams says (APS News, “January 1, 1925: Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin And The Day The Universe Changed,” aps.org):

Her 1925 thesis, entitled Stellar Atmospheres, was famously described by astronomer Otto Struve as “the most brilliant PhD thesis ever written in astronomy.” By calculating the abundance of chemical elements from stellar spectra, her work began a revolution in astrophysics.

I am not into astrophysics, so that is as far as I will go.

As a teacher, I want to emphasize that what is known as the Battle of the Sexes is actually a Battle of the Minds rightly recognizing knowledge.

In the case of Cecilia Payne, she was right! Adrian Huxley says (untitled, undated, LinkedIn, linkedin.com):

Not only did Cecilia Payne discover what the universe is made of, she also discovered what the sun is made of. (Henry Norris Russell, a fellow astronomer, is usually given credit for discovering that the sun’s composition is different from the Earth’s, but he came [out with] his conclusions four years later than Payne – after telling her not to publish.)

Astronomers: American Russel over British Payne – This is to me not racist but not-so-simply male brawn over female brain!@517