Francois de Le Vayer La Mothe
He was born on 1588, Paris and died 1672. He is an independent thinker and writer who developed a philosophy of skepticism more radical than that of Michel Montaigne but less absolute than that of Pierre Bayle. He became an avocat at the Parlement of Paris, taking over his father’s seat, but soon resigned when the attraction of belles letters became stronger. His work La Contrariete d’ humeur entre la nation francaise et l’espagnole (1636; “Conflicts of Interest Between the French and Spanish Nations”) and Considerations sur l’ eloquence francaise (1638) earned him admission to the Academie Francaise in 1639. He was admired by the powerful Cardinal de Richelieu and was tutor to several noble youths, including from 1652 to 1657 Louis XIV, for whom he wrote a complete series of texts. The King rewarded him by appointing him historiographer of France and councilor of state.
His many philosophical works include De la vertu des paien (1642); “On the Goodness of the Pagans”); a treatise entitled Du peu de certitude qu’il y a dans l’ histoire (1668; “On the Lack of Certitude in History”), which marked a beginning of historical criticism in France; and five skeptical Dialogues, published posthumously under the pseudonym Orosius Tubero, which are concerned, respectively, with diversity in opinions, variety in customs of life and sex roles, the value of solitude, the virtue of the fools of this time, and differences in religion.
Dr. Gregorio Y. Zara
DID you know that a Filipino scientist invented the video phone even before multimedia messaging (MMS) and video conferencing became popular?
Dr. Gregorio Zara invented the two-way television telephone or videophone in 1955 and patented it as a “photo phone signal separator network.”
But that’s not all. Dr. Zara invented, made improvement to, or discovered a lot more:
● Airplane engine that ran on plain alcohol as fuel (1952)
● Improved methods of producing solar energy; new designs for a solar water heater (SolarSorber), a sum stove, and a solar battery (1960s)
● Propeller-cutting machine (1952)
● Microscope with a collapsible stage
More importantly, Dr. Zara became known for discovering the physical law of electrical kinetic resistance, called the Zara Effect, in 1930.
For having completed over 40 research papers and making 20 outstanding contributions to science, Zara received many awards, including the Presidential diploma of Merit. He was conferred the Distinguished Service Medal in 1959 for his pioneering works and achievements in solar energy research, aeronautics and television. Zara was also given the Presidential Gold Medal and Diploma of Honor for Science and Research in 1966; and the Cultural Heritage Award for Science Education and Aero Engineering in 1966.
Sources:
NAST. The First Decade National Academy of Science and Technology, DOST www.geocities.com/Paris/leftBank/2598/gyz.html
Christophe-Louis-Leon Juchault de Lamoriciere
He was born on February 5, 1806 in Nantes, France and died on September 11, 1865 in Prouzel, France, general and administrator noted for his part in the conquest of Algeria and his efforts to make Algeria a productive colony.
Entering the engineers in 1829, Lamoriciere was sent to ‘Algiers (1830) as captain in the Zouaves. In 1833 he played a prominent role in the creation of the Arab Bureau, which was to coordinate information on French Arabian colonies. Military success at Constantine led to his promotion to colonel (1837) and thereafter the rose rapidly to marshal (1840) and to governor of a division (1843). An efficient and distinguished general, he served as governor general of Algeria during the incumbent’s absence in 1845.
In France in 1846, Lamoriciere was elected deputy for Sarthe and submitted a plan for free, rather than military, colonization of Algeria. He was concerned that a war of extermination against the Arabs would leave Algeria a barren wasteland instead of a rich and useful colony. He served as minister of war (1848) and was sent to Russia on a diplomatic mission (1850-51) dealing with political, military, and colonial affairs. Opposed to the rising power of Louis Napoleon, he was arrested (1851) and exiled, but was allowed to return in 1857. In 1860 he led the papal troops against Piedmont, but was defeated at Castelfidardo and returned to France.
Alexandre Lameth
He was born on October 28, 1760, in Paris and died on March 18, 1829, noble who was a leading advocate of constitutional monarchy in the early stages of the French Revolution of 1789. Lameth and his brothers, Charles and Theodore, fought for the colonists in the American Revolution (1775-83). On returning of France, he was appointed colonel of a cavalry regiment (1785).
Lameth was elected a representative for the nobility to the States General that convened on May 5, 1789, but on June 25 he joined the unprivileged Third Estate, which had declared itself a revolutionary National “Assembly. He helped draft the Assembly’s Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (August 1789), and he supported measures abolishing feudalism and restricting the hitherto absolute powers of King Louis XVL. In September, Lameth and his two close associates, Antoine Barnave and Adrien Duport—the “triumpvirate”—blocked legislation that would have created a separate legislative chamber for the mobility.
Nevertheless, by the spring of 1791 Lameth and his friends felt that continuation of the “Revolution might endanger the monarchy and private property. They then became secret advisers to the royal family, which subsidized their paper, the Logographe. Lameth secured legislation excluding “passive citizens” (those who could not meet the property qualification for voting) from membership in the national guard, and he sought to curb the popular press, which was agitating for democratic reforms.
Louis XVI’s abortive attempt to flee from France in June 1791, however, discredited the new system of constitutional monarchy. In an attempt to consolidate their forces, Lameth and his associates withdrew from the Jacobin club and formed the Club of the Feuillans. The triumvirs were ineligible to sit in the Legislative Assembly, which convened on Oct. 1, 1791, but they directed the Feuillants of the Assembly in their unsuccessful struggle against the Jacobins.
When France went to war with Austria in April 1792, Lameth became an officer in the Army of the North. He emigrated with the marquis de Lafayette after the fall of the monarchy on Aug. 10, 1792. Interned for more than three years in Austria, Lameth settled in Hamburg in 1796. After napoleon came to power in France, Lameth returned to his homeland (1800) and served as a prefect from 1802 until 1815. He was a member of the liberal parliamentary opposition during the reigns of kings Louis XVII and Charles X.
Carmen C. Velasquez
Born in Bayambang, Pangasinan, Dr. Velasquez was conferred the National Scientist Award in 1983. She earned her degree from the University of the Philippines and University of Michigan, majoring and mastering in Zoology in 1934 and 1937, respectively. In 1957, the she received her doctorate in Parasitology, also from UP.
As a professor emeritus of Zoology, scientist and scholar, she holds the distinction of being the first Ph.D graduate of Parasitology. Her pioneering research efforts have resulted in the publication of 47 basic and 45 scientist papers of value particularly in public health and conservation.
Her book “Digenetic Trematodes of Philippine Fishes,” the first in Southeast Asia, provides a reginal reference to fish parasitology and aquaculture management. – Rea Hebron
(Hughes-)Felicite(-Robert de) Lamennais
He was a priest and philosophical and political writer who attempted to combine political liberalism with Roman Catholicism after French Revolution. He was born on June 19, 1782, at Saint-Malo, France. He died on February 27, 1854, at Paris. Born to a bourgeois family whose liberal sympathies had been chastened by the French Revolution, he and his elder brother, Jean early conceived the idea of a revival of Catholicism as the key to social regeneration. After Napoleon’s restoration of the French Church, the brothers sketched a program of reform in Reflexions sur l’etat de l’eglise en France pendant le 18e siècle et sur sa situation actuelle (1808; “Reflections on the State of the Church in France During the Eighteenth Century and Her Present Situation”). Five years later, at the height of the Emperor’s conflict with the papacy, they produced a defense of Ultramontanism (a movement supporting papal prerogatives, in contrast to Gallicanism). Ordained a priest in 1816, Lamennais published in the following year the first volume of his Essai sur l’indifference en matiere de religion (“Essay on Indifference Toward Religion”). Appealing to tradition rather than private judgment, it won immediate fame. But his position began to shift. Although he attacked the Gallicanism of the bishops and the monarchy in his book Des progress de la revolution et de la guerre contra legalize (1829; “On the Progress of the Revolution and the War Against the Church”), the work showed his readiness to combine Catholicism with political liberalism in France.
After the July, Revolution in 1830, Lamennais founded Leavened with Henri Lacordaire, Charles de Montalembert, and a group of enthusiastic liberal Catholic writers. The paper, which advocated democratic principle and church-state separation, antagonized both the church and the state in France and despite its Ultramontanism found little favor in Rome, for Pope Gregory XVI had no wish to assume the revolutionary role designed for him. Publication of the paper was suspended in November 1831, and after a vain appeal to the Pope its principles were condemned in the encyclical Mirari Vos (August 1832). Lamennais then attacked the papacy and the European monarchs in Paroles d’ un croyani (1834), provoking the encyclical Singulari Nos (July 1834), which lead to his severance from the church. He continued to write philosophical and literary works, including Le Livre du people (1838); “The Book of the People”), and he served in the constituent assembly after the Revolution of 1848. But his hopes were again defeated when the coup d’etat set the seal on Louis-Napoleon’s dictatorship. Having refused to be reconciled to the church, Lamennais was buried in a pauper’s grave. His life and works are discussed in A.R. Vidler’s Prophecy and Papacy: A Study of Lamennais, the Church and the Revolution (1954).
John Lambert
John Lambert
John Lambert was born in autumn 1619, Calton, West Riding, Yorkshire and he dies on March 1684, at St. Nicholas Isle, off Plymouth, Cornwall. A leading parliamentary general during the English Civil War (1642-51) and the principal architect of the protectorate, the form of republican government existing in England from 1653 to 1660. Coming from a well-to-do family of gentry, Lambert joined the parliamentary army as a captain at the outbreak of the Civil War between King Charles I and Parliament. He first distinguished himself in encounters with the Royalists at Bradford, Yorkshire, in March 1644, and he fought bravely in the major parliamentary victory at Marston Moor, Yorkshire in July 1644. A major general at the age of 28, he helped Henry Ireton draw up the “Heads of Proposals,” a draft constitution aimed at reconciling the conflicting interests of the army, Parliament, and the King.
At the beginning of the second phase of the Civil War in 1648, Lambert was commander of the troops of northern England. He and Oliver Cromwell routed the Scottish Royalist invaders at Preston, Lancashire, in August 1648, and on March 22, 1649, Lambert captured Pontefract, Yorkshire, the last Royalist stronghold in England.
Second in command under Cromwell during the campaigns against the Royalists in Scotland in 1650 and 1651, Lambert and Cromwell, on September 3, 1651, decisively defeated Charles I’s son, Charles II, at Worcester in the final battle of the Civil War.
In succeeding years Lambert played a key role in Cromwell’s experimental governments. He persuaded Cromwell to dissolve the “Rump” Parliament in 1653, putting the army firmly in control of the government, and was responsible for drawing up the Instruments of Government under which Cromwell assumed dictatorial powers as Lord Protector of the commonwealth in 1653. Lambert served on the Council of State and was Cromwell’s right-hand man until, in 1657, he outspokenly opposed the proposal that Cromwell be made king. When he refused to swear allegiance to the Protector, Cromwell deprived him of his offices but granted him a substantial annual pension.
After Cromwell’s death (September 1658), Lambert gradually returned to politics. He did not openly cooperate with the army officers who deposed Cromwell’s son and successor, Richard, in May 1659, but he was one of the most powerful figures in the ensuing power struggle. Although he helped restore the “Rimp” Parliament in May 1659, he soon broke with it and dissolved it by force. Shortly thereafter, his army was defeated by the forces of Gen. George Monck, who marched from Scotland to reinstate parliament. Monck proceeded to restore King Charles I to power (1660), and in June 1662 Lambert was sentenced to death for his part in the Civil War, Granted a reprieve, he spent the rest of his life in prison.
Empowering the Farmers
Dr. Romulo G. Davide
Farmers who are also scientists and businessmen—that’s what Dr. Romulo G. Davide envisions for Filipino farmers. He wants to train farmers to empower them using science and technology.
Dr. Davide’s farmer-scientist program has empowered upland farmers in Cebu to determine the appropriate technologies for their farms. Through Dr. Davide’s program, the farmers learned integrated pest management, and thus encouraging them not to depended on toxic pesticides. They also learned to develop their own hybrid corn producing their own seeds from their farms.
Dr. Davide’s desire to serve his fellow Filipinos is unquestionable. After gaining his bachelor’s degree from the University of the Philippines’ College of Agriculture, he went to the United States where he earned his masters and doctorate degrees from the Oklahoma State University and North Carolina State University, respectively. Shortly after receiving his doctorate degree in nematology and plant pathology in 1966, he was offered a professorial job that he declined because of his commitment to his country.
This commitment would highlight his prolific career. Dr. Davide is internationally recognized for his contributions to nematology, including the national survey, identification, and control of nematodes that infest economic crops. He also discovered the first and safest biological control agent, called BIOACT, against nematodes. For these and other works, Dr. Davide has the distinction of being the first Filipino to be included in the “Who’s Who” in nematology.
Asked to comment on his career and contributions as teacher, scientist, and mentor, Dr. Romulo Davide shrugged all the accolade aside, saying that he is just an instrument of God.
Source:
► Eileen Calaycay-Cardona. ‘There are no barren soils, only barren minds.” www.up.edu.ph/forum/2002/Aug02/davide.html
► National Academy of Science and Technology. www.nast.dost.gov.ph/pro_davide.html
