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1. Ernest Hemingway



Via vimeo.com


“A cat has absolute emotional honesty: human beings, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings, but a cat does not.”
â€"Ernest Hemingway



jfklibrary.org
Ernest Hemingway Collection. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston.


“One cat just leads to another.”
â€"Ernest Hemingway



jfklibrary.org
Ernest Hemingway Collection. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston.

Rubbish hotels, terrible value and the least helpful locals: Russian capital Moscow voted the worst city in the world to visit

Tokyo declared the best - while London comes a respectable 11th

by Adam Withnall
Tuesday 27 May 2014

It may have a rich history and a dominant role in world politics, but Moscow has received the unwelcome honour of being voted the worst city in the world for visitors.

Visitors planning a city break to the Russian capital should expect locals to be unfriendly, the hotels to be awful, a scarcity of shops and for everything there is to be wildly overpriced.

According to the annual Cities Survey from TripAdvisor, which collates the opinions of more than 54,000 travellers to the top 37 urban tourist destinations around the world, Moscow came in last place in a competition-beating five review categories.

more at http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/rubbish-hotels-terrible-value-and-the-least-helpful-locals-russian-capital-moscow-voted-the-worst-city-in-the-world-to-visit-9441635.html

Myth 7: Drinking coffee may cause Osteoporosis

This is another common myth about coffee which has no truth. Lack of calcium and vitamin D in your diet is the leading cause of Osteoporosis and coffee consumption has no role in it. Some other factors contributing to Osteoporosis are lack of physical activity, smoking, low body weight, menopause, high protein diet and low estrogen levels. Studies conducted over the years have proved that if you consume a moderate amount of coffee on a daily basis it does not increase the risk of getting Osteoporosis.

http://www.fitnea.com/

Myth 6: Coffee causes miscarriage, infertility and low birth weight

This is another misconception about coffee which has no strong evidence of being true. Scientist has found that there is no direct link between drinking coffee and miscarriages. Similarly women who take coffee regularly don’t necessarily give birth to babies with low body weight. Women who drink lots of coffee on a daily basis won’t face difficulty in getting pregnant or infertility.

Myth 5: Caffeine is addictive

People who drink coffee regularly say that they are addicted to caffeine because they feel that they can’t leave without it. Addiction is when a person strongly depends on a drug with severe withdrawal symptoms. He should have an urge to consume it more and more and is tolerant to a particular dose. Caffeine consumption does not qualify to be an addiction and researches too have shown that caffeine does not cause any kind of addiction. Alcohol or other drug addiction can have severe social and physical consequences but this is not the case with caffeine which further ascertain the fact that it is not addictive or does not cause addiction.

Myth 4: Coffee has no health benefits

It is believed that coffee has no health benefits associated with it. This is not true as has been found out by scientists who have discovered some wonderful health benefits with coffee. Coffee contains useful antioxidants which have been found to improve your heart health and prevent and fight cancer.

It has also been found that regular consumption of coffee improves your concentration levels which in turn boosts your efficiency at work and personal life. It also can benefit people suffering from insomnia as drinking coffee can help you get better sleep.

Myth 3: Drinking coffee causes cancer

Another common myth associated with coffee is that drinking it regularly can cause cancer. Several researches have been conducted over the years but the results show that there is no connection between regular coffee consumption and the development of cancer.

Some researchers even found that people who drink coffee daily are at a lower risk of getting cancer. Coffee contains beneficial antioxidants which help fight cancer. It also helps to reverse the effects of aging and make you look younger compared to your age.

Myth 2: Caffeine causes insomnia

This is a common myth about caffeine which is not true. When you drink a cup of coffee the body almost instantly absorbs the caffeine but it also discards it out quickly. Caffeine after being consumed is processed through the liver and almost half of it may be flushed out of the body within 4-5 hours and in another 5 hours almost 75% of it is eliminated out of the body. You should not face problems getting sleep due to caffeine if you just consume 2-3 cups of coffee on a daily basis.

Myth 1: Coffee makes you feel stressed out

Drinking coffee does not directly increase stress levels or make you feel anxious or nervous. Coffee is considered a natural stimulant which can have a relaxing effect on your mind. Coffee is not directly responsible for triggering stress but it blocks production of adenosine in the body which is a natural stress reliever.

7 Myths About Drinking Coffee



Coffee is one of the most popular beverages in the world. This awesome beverage has become an important part of our mornings and keeps us awake when there’s a lot to do. There are different opinions about coffee based on different researches. Some say it does no harm, some say it is beneficial and some say it causes problems. Many times the arguments against coffee are wrong and are not based on any researches. This made some myths about drinking coffee popular. Here’s 7 of them:

Igor Akinfeev drops the ball into his own net...

Alexander Kokorin has had a frustrating evening

South Korea's goalkeeper Jung Sung-Ryong punches a corner clear

Son Heung-Min is crowded out by the Russian defence

south korean fans show their support



so do the russian fans

what is a mexican wave?

The wave (known as the Mexican wave in the anglosphere outside North America) is an example of metachronal rhythm achieved in a packed stadium when successive groups of spectators briefly stand, yell, and raise their arms. Immediately upon stretching to full height, the spectator returns to the usual seated position. (wikipedia)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgRwHL4P8tU#

It's a Mexican wave! Half-time score: Brazil 0-0 Mexico Photograph: Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty Images

The best chance of the half comes when Neymar leaps above Rafael Marquez ... Photograph: Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters


But Guillermo Ochoa of Mexico claws the ball away Photograph: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

Marcelo, left, David Luiz and Julio Cesar belt out the Brazilian national anthem Photograph: Jed Leicester/Action Images



The passion and emotion of the national anthem is to much for Neymar Photograph: Buda Mendes/Getty Images

World Cup 2014: Brazil fail to find a way past marvellous Mexico

David Hytner at Estadio Castelão
The Guardian, Tuesday 17 June 2014


Brazil's forward Neymar, right, goes on the rampage against Mexico. Photograph: Vanderlei Almeida/AFP/Getty Images

There has been plenty of talk of footballing ghosts here for Brazil and the scariest one for them is generally considered to be Uruguay, what with 1950 and all that. But Mexico have also put a few skeletons in the closet of the World Cup hosts and they once again proved irksome.

No team have fared better against Brazil over the last 15 years than El Tri and they entered this collision with seven wins and four losses in 13 meetings. That did not include the victory in the final of the 2012 Olympic Games, ostensibly an under-23 game but arguably the hardest one of all for Brazil to stomach.

more at http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/jun/17/brazil-mexico-world-cup-2014-group-a-match-report

tuesday, june 17


Group A
Brazil - 0
Mexico - 0
(fulltime)


Group H
Belgium - 2
Algeria - 1
(fulltime)

Russia - 1
Korea Republic - 1
(fulltime)

However Abella conceded this still would not be nearly enough to counter the growing problem of foreign fishing incursions.

"We know it remains rampant," he said.

"Palawan has a lot of resources that are no longer available where they come from, and it is relatively easy to get them. They know that policing here is not as strict, that's why they continue to come here."

Meanwhile, there are no police gunboats to patrol the rest of the country's coastline, the fourth longest in the world.

The safeguarding of marine resources along the rest of the Philippines' coastline is left to the poorly equipped navy and coastguard, which is generally preoccupied with other duties.

http://news.yahoo.com/

But in recent decades, competition for increasingly scarce fish stocks has heightened as populations in Asian nations have boomed, forcing fishermen to travel further from home and closer to foreign coasts for their hauls.

"They know fully well that they are fishing beyond their territorial waters. Their vessels are equipped with GPS (global positioning system)," said the boat unit's spokesman, Inspector Raymond Abella.

Boat unit grows, but not enough

The unit is expanding, with a new station being built near Malaysia and another one planned for the sea border with Indonesia.

Rodriquez said most foreigners charged with illegal fishing served sentences ranging from six months to four years.

The Chinese detained last week face longer prison terms because their case involves an endangered species, rather than just illegal fishing.

Fishermen from China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam have for centuries shared the South China Sea's riches, mostly peacefully.

The court did not give an immediate decision but chief Palawan state prosecutor Alen Rodriguez said plea bargains were common.

"Bringing about convictions is quite easy, especially as they often resort to plea bargains," Rodriguez told AFP.


Members of Philippine Maritime police Special Boat Unit simulate an apprehension of poachers during a training exercise in Honda Bay off Puerto Princesa, Palawan island, southwest of Manila, on June 6, 2014 (AFP Photo/Ted Aljibe)

In 2011, the boat unit was also involved in a joint operation with the military that led to the arrest of 122 Vietnamese, the biggest illegal fishing bust in recent memory. They served jail terms of about six months, then were sent home.

The crew of the Chinese boat have appeared in court at Puerto Princesa, the capital of Palawan, for initial proceedings in what is expected to be a lengthy judicial process. They have pleaded not guilty.

They are in the provincial jail with dozens of Vietnamese arrested near Palawan's most southern tip in waters that indisputably belong to the Philippines.

Twelve of those fishermen offered last week to switch to guilty pleas and pay fines in exchange for their immediate release.

The arrests fuelled a decades-long but increasingly bitter row between the Philippines and China over their competing claims to parts of the sea, and the Chinese government demanded the fishermen be immediately released.

China insists it has sovereign rights to nearly all of the South China Sea, including waters more than 1,000 kilometres from its most southern major landmass and just 40 or 50 kilometres from Palawan.

The Philippine government has held its ground in the case, maintaining the fishermen must be brought to justice for harvesting a rare and protected species, a crime that carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in jail.


Members of Philippine Maritime police Special Boat Unit ride on US-made gun boats during a training exercise in Honda Bay off Puerto Princesa, Palawan island, southwest of Manila, on June 6, 2014 (AFP Photo/Ted Aljibe)

Most recently, the unit last month arrested 9 Chinese fishermen in hotly contested South China Sea waters off Palawan and seized their boat, which police said contained hundreds of endangered hawksbill sea turtles, many of them dead.


Members of Philippine Maritime police Special Boat Unit simulate an apprehension of poachers during a training exercise in Honda Bay off Puerto Princesa, Palawan island, southwest of Manila, on June 6, 2014 (AFP Photo/Ted Aljibe)

Most of the unit's work is restricted to just off the coast of Palawan, which is indisputably Philippine territory.

However the Chinese bust occurred more than 100 kilometres (60 miles) off Palawan in a part of the South China Sea that the Philippines insists it has sovereign rights over but is also claimed by China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.

But the unit has an Achilles heel, or two: with just six boats and a tiny fuel budget from an under-funded police force, it cannot come close to adequately patrolling the waters around Palawan and into the South China Sea.

"The area is too vast to be patrolled," Espinosa conceded.

Small boats make big diplomatic waves

Nevertheless, the boat unit has been involved in the arrests of hundreds of fishermen, many of them foreigners, and busts involving Chinese and Vietnamese crews have sent diplomatic shockwaves across the South China Sea.


Members of Philippine Maritime police Special Boat Unit maneouver their US-made gun boats as they simulate an apprehension of poachers, during a training exercise in Honda Bay off Puerto Princesa, Palawan island, on June 6, 2014 (AFP Photo/Ted Aljibe)

Set up four years ago with funding from the US government, which also donated the gunboats and provided Navy SEAL training, the unit's mission is to patrol the near-2,000-kilometre (1,243-mile) coast of the strategically located province.

Combating human trafficking is one part of its mission, but most of its time and resources is spent on trying to stop poaching of rare fish and other endangered wildlife in and around Palawan, which lies astride the South China Sea.

"Without those (gunboats) the poachers would be laughing at us," said the unit's chief administrative officer, Inspector Bryan Espinosa.


A member of Philippine Maritime police Special Boat Unit walks towards a Chinese vessel apprehended weeks ago for alleged illegal fishing near the disputed Spratly islands, anchored in Honda Bay, off Puerto Princesa, Palawan island, on June 6, 2014 (AFP Photo/Ted Aljibe)

Philippine boat police anger China in fishing fight

AFP
By Cecil Morella, June 16, 2014


Members of Philippine Maritime police Special Boat Unit, riding on US-made gun boats, maneouver during a training exercise in Honda Bay, off Puerto Princesa, Palawan island, southwest of Manila, on June 6, 2014 (AFP Photo/Ted Aljibe)

HONDA BAY (Philippines) (AFP) - After a short, intense chase, two Philippine police gunboats catch up with an illegal fishing vessel and circle it like menacing sharks, their armed commandos poised to rappel onboard.

"Their first reaction is to flee, but they stop once they realise they cannot out-run us," boat captain John Rey Zumarraga told AFP during a training exercise in Honda Bay off the Philippines' most western island of Palawan.

With top speeds of 83 kilometres an hour (45 knots), modern radar systems and elite marine officers, the 10-metre (33-foot) Special Boat Unit vessels are bad news for illegal fishermen.

What is Iran’s position?

Iran’s president has blasted ISIL as “barbaric,” and its foreign minister offered his country’s support to Iraq in its “fight against terrorism.” Iran has halted flights to Baghdad and is beefing up border security. As a Shiite country, Iran shares an affinity with the current governments of Iraq and Syria.


http://www.thestar.com/

What’s the Kurdish role?

Kurdish fighters from the ethnic group’s autonomous enclave in the north are showing signs of taking a greater role in fighting back against ISIL. Their role is a potential point of friction because both Sunni and Shiite Arabs are wary over Kurdish claims on territory outside their enclave.

What is the rebel strategy?

ISIL commands between 7,000 and 10,000 fighters, according to U.S. intelligence officials. The group’s military strategy is still somewhat of a mystery, but the extremists have cunningly crafted their tactics and message to meet local considerations.

In Syria, they are quite open about their ideology and goals, imposing their strict brand of Islamic law, banning music and executing people in the main square of the city of Raqqa, which they control. In Iraq, they focus on portraying themselves as the protectors of the Sunni community from al-Maliki’s government and have at least so far overlooked some practices they consider forbidden.

What about the security forces?

Corruption and sectarianism are widespread problems in the security forces, with little sense of professionalism or loyalty to the Baghdad government â€" even though Shiites make up most of the army. Also, Islamic militants are terrorizing Sunni soldiers and police, in at least one case beheading an officer and then distributing a video of the attack.

Will Iraq be divided?

The recent developments have renewed the possibility, much discussed during the war a decade ago, that Iraq will be divided into three separate regions or even nations â€" the mostly Shiite section, made up of Baghdad and much of the south and east bordering Iran; a Sunni area, comprised of western Iraq and parts of the north; and a Kurdish zone, also in the north and including the cities of Irbil and Kirkuk, which Saddam tried to populate with Arabs.

Why now?

The group, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), is taking advantage of two trends: growing discontent among Iraq’s minority Sunnis toward Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Shiite-led government, which they accuse of discrimination; and the increasingly sectarian dimension of the Syrian civil war, as mostly Sunni rebels fight to oust a regime dominated by members of a Shiite sect.

Taking advantage of the breakdown of state authority, militant fighters easily cross the border. The Iraqi territory recently seized by militants is populated overwhelmingly by Sunnis, many of whom, at least for now, may see al-Maliki as more of a threat than ISIL. Signs are also emerging that ISIL is backed in its current campaign by former military officers and other members of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein’s regime.

What is going on in Iraq and why?

As an Al Qaeda breakaway group seizes large section of northern Iraq, some patterns and explanations are emerging.


HAIDAR HAMDANI / AFP/GETTY IMAGES
An Iraqi security officer stands guard in Najaf on June 12 as civilians wait to volunteer to join the fight against a major offensive by jihadists.

By: The Associated Press, Published on Thu Jun 12 2014

An Al Qaeda breakaway group, apparently backed by other Sunni groups and fighters, has seized a large section of northern Iraq after previously taking much of northeastern Syria with an eye toward establishing an Islamic state straddling the two countries. The situation on the ground is changing rapidly, but some patterns and explanations are now emerging:

hasta diri.  ang pultahan sa german manager sa usa ka boutique hotel nagkurtina ug german flag.  aw, wa may nagdili nako nga magbitay pod ug philippine flag sa among bintana, hehehe.  gagmay ra hinoon akong flags...

Joy: John Brooks of the United States celebrates after helping his side retake the lead

Head gains: John Brooks of the United States scores his team's second goal

Fighting chance: Iran's Andranik Teymourian tackles Nigeria's Ahmed Musa during their Group F goalless draw Photo: GETTY IMAGES

monday, june 16


Group F
Iran - 0
Nigeria - 0
(fulltime)


Group G
Ghana - 1
USA - 2
(fulltime)

It’s all over, 4-0 to Germany.

That’s their biggest ever win over Portugal â€" very disappointing from Ronaldo & Co. Pepe will need to have a long, hard look in the mirror.

by Marcus Walker

The best possible opening for Germany’s World Cup. The worst possible start to Portugal’s.

Germany looked balanced, flexible, able to play slow or fast, and lethal when Müller finds space near goal. The only problem might be the injury to central defender Hummels.

Portugal has a deep hole to climb out of. It has to win its next match, against the U.S. on June 22, or it’s all over for Ronaldo & Co.

Later today we’ll see whether the U.S. or Ghana have the quality to stop Germany from winning this group. How good is this German team? We might not find out until the knockout stages.

Germany has reached at least the quarter-finals in every World Cup since 1938. It’ll be no surprise if it goes further than that this time.

more at http://blogs.wsj.com/dailyfix/2014/06/16/world-cup-2014-germany-v-portugal-live/

AFP/Getty Images
Portugal’s defender Joao Pereira and Germany’s Mario Goetze challenge for the ball.

monday, june 16


Group G
Germany - 4
Portugal - 0
(fulltime)

Sandy Robins/Special to MSNBC.com
Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles is a cat-lover, too. Here, he's shown with his feline Gabriel, who is named after the angel.

St. Gregory the Great (Pope Gregory I, 540-604) possessed no worldly goods except a cat, which he held and stroked while meditating.

Pope Leo XII (1760-1829)

Pope Leo owned a grayish-red cat with black stripes called Micette, who was born in the Vatican and lived with the Pope.  Reportedly,  the pope occasionally gave audiences with the cat hidden on his lap under his robes.

joseph alois ratzinger (pope benedict XVI), with siblings and their cat

Contessina - already in residence at Mater Ecclesiae, the residence of the pope emeritus

http://conservationcubclub.com/


Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said that the Pope talks to cats whenever he sees them, “Every time he met a cat he would talk to it, sometimes for a long time.” Bertone wondered if the Pope used a special language to talk to cats. “I tried to understand the language he used with cats, who were always enchanted when he met them. I thought maybe it was a Bavarian dialect. I don’t know.” (http://fatherjoe.wordpress.com/)

http://conservationcubclub.com/


The Kansas City Star reported that “[His housekeeper] pointed up a staircase to a wall full of painted plates, each depicting a different cat. The brothers collected the plates together, she said. ‘When we were on vacation, a cat, a little kitten, would come by, and he’d be giddy, almost giggling with joy,’ she said. ‘Cats love him; they always go to him straight away. And he loves them back.’” (http://fatherjoe.wordpress.com/)

http://conservationcubclub.com/


The Knight-Ridder News Agency reported in April 2005 that the theologian Karl Baumgartner had once accompanied the cardinal to a cemetery behind Campasanto Teutonica, a church in Rome. He recalls that “It was full of cats and when he went out, they all ran to him. They knew him and loved him. He stood there, petting some and talking to them, for quite a long time. He visited the cats whenever he visited the church. His love for cats is quite famous.” (http://fatherjoe.wordpress.com/)

http://conservationcubclub.com/


Ratzinger says that while growing up, the pope and his family always had cats. But now, he says, the only cats in his own home are a “collection of porcelain plates with painted cats on them, mementos from different European vacations with my brother.” (http://fatherjoe.wordpress.com/)

http://conservationcubclub.com/


MSNBC also reported: “According to local news reports, the pope used to walk the streets of Borgo Pio, his former Roman neighborhood just east of the Vatican, where neighbors likened him to Dr. Dolittle with a Pied Piper charm. Stray cats would run to him when they saw him coming and he used to prepare food for them daily on special plates.” (http://fatherjoe.wordpress.com/)

“The street talk that the pope loves cats is incorrect. The pope adores cats.” - Cardinal Roger Mahony, the archbishop of Los Angeles who was in Rome for the pope’s inauguration, revealed the truth about Benedict's love of kitties


L''Osservatore Romano/AP Photo

Well, it worked, as J.T. committed to the Owls.

Nice work by the Rice coaches. It's the cat's worldâ€"J.T. is just living in it.

[Twitter, h/t Houston Chronicle]



Twitter / JohnGranato
J.T. Granato committed to play football at Rice University after a coach sent a letter to his cat.

Some schools are forced to win over mothers and fathers in order to land a football recruit. In the case of quarterback J.T. Granato, a 3-star prospect per 247Sports, it was his cat that needed convincing.

The Rice Owls were very serious about landing the Kinkaid (Texas) quarterback, so co-offensive coordinator Billy Lynch penned a letter to his cat.

According to Joseph Duarte of the Houston Chronicle, coach Lynch wrote:

    As you know we’re trying to convince J.T. Rice is the place for him. I know you’d like to keep him close so he can feed you and change the litter box. Please help us to get him to choose us. Paw me if you have any questions.

CLASS ACT: Japanese fans were seen cleaning their part of the stands after the match. #WorldCupProblems pic.twitter.com/0wIR8alK8P

A local priest assigned to the House of Emmanuel, one of Lalibela's churches.


http://edition.cnn.com/

A view of one of the churches from one of the tunnels which link many of the sacred sites.

UNESCO declared Lalibela a World Heritage Site in 1978. Five years ago, the international agency erected protective coverings to shield four of the churches from the elements. Experts say they are critical to preserving the integrity of the structures.

Locals say that some 80,000 to 100,000 people visit the small town every year, many of whom traverse the rocky roads on foot.

A complex and extensive system of drainage ditches, tunnels and subterranean passageways connects the underground churches, which were carved out of volcanic tuff rock.

The Church of St. George is perhaps the most famous of Lalibela's 11 churches. Builders would have had to have started carving at the top working their way down.

The spectacular churches were carved both inside and out from a single rock some 900 years ago.

In the rugged mountains of northern Ethiopia, Lalibela is a religious center that's home to 11 famous rock-hewn churches.


Ethiopia is home to one of the oldest Christian churches in the world, dating back to the early fourth century. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church used to be a part of Egypt's Coptic Church, but established its own patriarch in 1959. Today, nearly two thirds of the East African country's population is Christian, with most belonging to the Orthodox Church. (From Errol Barnett, CNN, June 27 2013)

Though these types of occurrences are rare, they are likely to occur in arid regions with nutrient-poor soil.


http://edition.cnn.com/

There are similar examples in nature that are likely a result of self-organization. These include Niger's tiger bushes and spinifex grass in Australia.

Basically, in arid climates, where water is scarce and soil nutrient-poor, plants face stiffer competition for resources. As a result, they 'organize' themselves at a distance to maximize what limited resources are available --ultimately forming strongly ordered patterns on the landscape.

"There is a high correlation between fairy circles and these termites, and therefore Juergens claimed that they're the cause. But it's just a correlation, and one of the most fundamental mistakes a scientist can make is to confuse correlation with causation," says Walter Tschinkel, a biology professor at Florida State University who specializes in both social insect behavior and fairy circles.



"The termite theory is very appealing to people, because it's relatively easy to understand, whereas self-organization requires some knowledge or intuition for how plants work," he adds.

Juergens based his findings on the fact that p. allocerus were the only insect species found consistently across the full stretch of desert where the circles are present, and were especially abundant around the circles. Though a tempting explanation, some experts remain unconvinced.

"Whereas all insect studies showed large-scale clumping of nest locations, self-organization in itself can cause homogenous spacing at those scales and even beyond to several kilometers."

"I don't want to overstate things," he says. "But there is not a single study showing that social insects can cause such large-scale homogenous distribution patterns, as revealed by our study," adds Getzin.

Debunking the termite

The self-organization theory comes about a year after biology professor Norbert Juergens argued in a paper published in Science that fairy circles were the work of a species of sand termite, psammotermes allocerus. Juergens' argument went that they created an underground oasis for themselves by eating the grass roots and killing them, thereby causing a subterranean water trap (without vegetation, water doesn't evaporate and remains underground). Getzin finds the explanation unlikely.

Getzin hypothesizes Namibia's fairy circles are formed through a similar phenomenon: self-organization. Basically, in arid climates, where water is scarce and soil nutrient-poor, plants face stiffer competition for resources. As a result, they "organize" themselves at a distance to maximize what limited resources are available -- ultimately forming strongly ordered patterns on the landscape.

"If you go to Wikipedia and type in 'tiger bush', you'll find aerial images of a county in Niger where the vegetation forms in striped patterns. In Australia, you have [areas with grass circles known as] spinifex grass," he notes.



"A few days ago, a professor in California sent me an example of ring-like patterns formed in the Mojave Desert."

"The point is, fairy circles are still a mystery. There's been lots of work done in the field and in labs, but none could solve the issue," says Stephan Getzin, a scientist from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Leipzig, Germany.

Nature on repeat

Getzin, along with a team of Israeli experts, recently put forth a theory of their own. Using aerial photography, they were able to study the spatial patterns of the fairy circles. The consistency and breadth of their distribution put him in mind of other landscapes whose vegetation, from a distance, also resembles a textile designer's sketchpad.

Namibia's 'fairy circles': Nature's greatest mystery?

By Daisy Carrington, for CNN
June 13, 2014



(CNN) -- From the air, the Namibian desert looks like it has a bad case of chicken pox. Spread across 1,100 miles of a narrow strip sit a smattering of barren polka dots, otherwise known as fairy circles. These sizable craters measure 10- to 65-feet in diameter, and represent one of nature's greatest mysteries.

Over the decades, a number of theories, from alien invasion to poisonous gasses have been put forth to explain the phenomenon. Last year, a study published in the journal Science made headlines by claiming sand termites were the culprit. None of these, however, have been fully proven.

Blocked: Senad Lulic is blocked by the on rushing Argentina keeper Sergio Romero http://www.dailymail.co.uk

sunday, june 15


Group E
France - 3
Honduras - 0
(fulltime)


Group F
Argentina - 2
Bosnia and Herzegovina - 1
(fulltime)

Ecuador's Juan Carlos Paredes fights for the ball with Switzerland's Valentin Stocker Photograph: David Gray/Reuters

yet i'll continue to cheer for the azkals and the german team.

azkals, azkals, azkals!  deutschland, deutschland, deutschland!

i'll wait for the day when the azkals play against the puzakals.

sunday, june 15


Group E
Switzerland - 2
Ecuador - 1

you want malolot, you get malolot, and more besides.

Quote from: hubag bohol on June 15, 2014, 01:07:42 AM
Baki? Pwede unggoy na lang?

na, hala.  such eyes make monkeys out of kings.

how profound.  cats are truly profound.