Phenomenon. That must be the title of the movie if Roger Federer’s life would have been made into a movie, or perhaps if one will be made in the future. Still so young at 24, he is already drawing comparisons to the legendary Pete Sampras who also gained his seventh grand slam title at the same age and the last tennis player before Federer to have won three consecutive major titles. The way he produces those highly pointed shots, as if placing the ball with his very own hand, at any place on the opponent’s side that he wishes to strike it, I have a feeling that Roger can be bigger than Sampras—or possibly bigger than anyone who have ever held a tennis racket in his/her hand. I have seen how the greats like say, Sampras and Andre Agassi play their tennis but to be honest with you, I have never seem to have seen someone as versatile and as technically adept like Roger, as if he is re-inventing the whole game of tennis altogether, brimming with power at every ace he churns out while exhibiting extreme finesse on returns. Not since Boris Becker have someone look as nimble like a leopard on the court that even the tightest returns could be flung back with masterful ease. Once I had watched him trounced an opponent like a hardened criminal, in a match held so years ago that I could not exactly remember what tournament was it, when he was just then a new kid on the block. He was as unflinching as each moment on the court at that time breathes like a bloodied warpath. He was like a warrior facing an enemy and with no trace of hesitation in his tingling eyes. I had thought then how dangerous he was. Like a killer robot in some sci-fi movie that can’t be penetrated even by the most corpulent bullet hurled at it. That’s it. Roger Federer plays tennis so well that he seems to be indestructible like a robot.

Despite of this, Roger’s rise has some snag in big media. I mean he should be in the front pages of Time magazine by now, but he ain’t. He being not an American tennis star, maybe the reason (the wrong reason clearly) why he ain’t as celebrated as he should be. I mean that guy (or boy) just kept on winning grand slams one after another like he was just eating peanuts in Central Park but we couldn’t even buy any poster of his in Toby’s or in our favorite downtown bookstore. He is so under-covered by big media. I bet his winning the Australian Open yesterday should have been bannered by CNN, a young phenomenon who is single-handedly rearranging the landscape of tennis—like what Tiger Woods was doing to golf when the Grand Slam titles kept on adding to his trophy collection back at home. Even John McEnroe had once quipped that Roger could just be “the best player ever” and Australian tennis star Lleyton Hewitt thinks “Roger has taken tennis to another level…”.

I think so too.

See CNN Story…

See NY Times Story…

It has been concluded lately that pre-historic humans were once hapless preys to huge birds (otherwise known as raptors). Paleo-anthropologist Lee Berger of the Wits University Palaeoanthropology Unit had made close examination of the 2 million year old fossil of a hominid known as the Taung Skull (after the region in South Africa where it was discovered in 1924) and found convincing evidence that the child-fossil was killed by a bird as indicated by ragged cuts in the shallow bones behind the eye sockets as well as keyhole marks on the skull, showing that it was attacked by beaks and talons instead of savage teeth and claws. It was first hypothesized that a leopard or a saber-tooth had killed the Taung child. Berger said that he had come up initially with the hypothesis after he found out that there had been a lot monkey skulls found in the same Taung region, having the same wounding marks. Thus, it is now ended what is said to be the longest or oldest murder mystery ever known—a riddle that was first posed by scientists ever since Professor Raymond Dart had discovered it in 1924. This recent discovery gives insights as to the life and times of early humans especially their manner of survival and the harshness of their environment. Scientists now deduced that predators such as the raptors have helped humans learned some important coping mechanisms like walking upright to help distinguish itself from monkeys (the more natural preys of eagles) and to often group together in order to stave off and discourage surprise attacks.

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What flying object is more than ten times faster than a speeding bullet? No, it’s not a plane or a bird—not even Superman—but something called “New Horizon”. Just days after the historic return of comet-chaser Stardust from space, NASA had successfully launched this probe that is aimed towards the edge of the solar system, into Pluto and the its near environment which is believed to be part of the mysterious Kuiper Belt ( a region mostly composed of ice and rocky bodies). It is believed that Pluto is still a part of the Kuiper Belt and by studying its environment through this probe, scientists may enable themselves to examine in detail elements that are highly believed to be debris from the formation of planets billions of years ago—like fossil bones in space. Eventually, the research into this region would give scientists more hints and clues as to the formation of the solar system and how planets came to be.

If “New Horizon” fulfills its mission in ten years time, it would complete NASA’s exploration of all nine planets in the solar system, an ambitious project that had started in the early years of the 80’s.

Like Stardust, New Horizon is a technological marvel. The size of a baby grand piano, the probe to Pluto can reach the maximum speed of 47,000 miles per hour. It reached the moon only in 9 hours while it took Apollo 11 all of 3 days. It is powered by 33 kilograms of plutonium and will travel more than 3 Billion miles in a period of ten years.

East of Iraq is the new hottest point in global politics. Every nation that matters seem to be highly involved in the debacle over Iran’s alleged use of nuclear technology to build and develop weapons of ultimate destruction—a kind of bomb that could decimate an entire population in minutes time. This must be how the sum of all of our fearslook and feel like. The boiling issue over there reminds me of Tom Clancy and the kind of fictions he make. I sure hope that this time, reality wouldn’t follow fiction —or life imitating art—as in the case of Stardust (that space voyager who made many scientists’ dream come true).

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It could be the most traveled piece of metal in the history of mankind, if it is not already. Stardust is that one space capsule that amazingly went 3 billion miles into space in a seven year period, in order to chase a comet (the Wild-2 that is highly believed to be part of the mysterious Kuiper Belt). Launch in 1999, the space capsule returned to Earth atmosphere on Sunday amidst animated fanfare throughout the scientific world.

Scientists is now hailing its return to Earth as both momentous and ground-breaking considering that it is only the first time that a space mission had brought back to Earth dust particles from a comet, elements that are said to be unchanged since the formation of our solar system. Specimens from a comet’s tail would be greatly helpful in proving the widely-known hypothesis that some elements found in a comet contains water and it was thought by many scientists that comets had helped caused the onset of life here on Earth by introducing life-giving substances into a nascent Earth atmosphere bit by bit—so many eons ago. Eventually, the study to be conducted on the dust specimens brought back by Stardust could possibly help scientist tinker more with the idea of introducing life on other nearby planets, more particularly the red planet Mars.

As it appears, the feat achieved by Stardust is so celebrated that eventually it seems, even machines can be heroes too. It always happens in movies before. But now it’s a reality.

Over there at the Quiapo area, about a couple of days ago, was the happening this year’s version of a religious ritual that sums up the phenomenon of faith, where hordes of men convene in a sea of humanity (nearly 600,000 according to Torn and Frayed), rising and moving and at times tumultuously swerving in any direction. These were men and women who displayed the ultimate devotion to Christ, thru the replica image of the Black Nazarene, braving the mortal danger that may arise in such a hugely unrehearsed congregation of thousands of individuals, just in order to take part in the dangerously heaving parade. There were even those who completely brush aside any fear and inhibition and worked themselves into the middle of the monstrous crowd, slowly and painstakingly, just in to be able to touch the mystical religious artifact. Such is the phenomenon of faith—believing fully while not seeing entirely the object or cause of faith.

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