MikeLigalig.com

The investment made in barely three years already comprised the bulk of its P14.5-billion total investment commitment made in 2010.

According to him, the joint venture has pumped in P4 billion into the Manila North Harbor development project and has contracted another P5 billion for various port developments.

The Romeros, through HCPHI, control 65 percent of MNHPI while SMC’s Petron Corp. owns the remaining 35 percent. HCPHI, Harbour Centre Port Terminal Inc. (HCPTI), and Platinum Dredging Inc. are controlled by listed Globalport 900 Inc. (formerly MIC Holdings Inc.).

Sultan 900 submitted an unsolicited proposal last year but was awarded the project after FF Cruz backed out. Likewise, the Filinvest Group also failed to meet the Sept. 2 deadline for the submission of bids.

Globalport 900 bought 100 percent of Platinum Dredging Inc., a domestic corporation engaged in the construction business related to ports as well as 96.32 percent of Harbour Centre Port Holdings Inc.

Manila North Harbor Port Inc. (MNHPI), a joint venture between the Romero-led Harbour Centre Port Holdings Inc. (HCPHI) and Petron Corp. of San Miguel Corp., has pumped in about P9 billion for the ongoing expansion and development of the 56-hectare North Harbor facility.

According to him, the company is now seeking a permit from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor).

Romero said the project would be funded through a combination of equity and debt.

The project covers the reclamation and development of 131 hectares of foreshore and submerged lands in Cansaga Bay to the second Mandaue-Mactan Bridge.

Michael Romero, chairman of Globalport, said the Sultan 900 consortium including sister firm R-II Builders Inc. bagged the P9-billion reclamation project in Mandaue City two weeks ago.

Romero said Globalport intends to develop Cebu side by side with the ongoing P14.5-billion expansion of the Manila North Harbor facility spanning 56 hectares.

“After this I want to concentrate in Cebu particularly Mandaue. I want to build a big port facility there also inside the global city,” he said.

He pointed out that the proposed complex covering 131 hectares would include a mixed-use commercial and industrial port as well as a casino and an entertainment city.

By Lawrence Agcaoili (The Philippine Star) | Updated October 16, 2013 - 12:00am





MANILA, Philippines - Listed Globalport 900 Inc., through holding firm Sultan 900, is investing P9 billion to put up a global city in Mandaue in Cebu that would include a port complex, a mixed-use residential and commercial center as well as a casino and entertainment complex.

buringog - feeble-minded \nutty \idiot \screwy \simpleton \moron \moronic \lumpish \crackpot \donkey \bird-brained \muttonhead \distracted \dunce \bobby \nitwit (inf.) \juggins (inf.) \daffy (Colloq.) \berk (Brit. slang) \dumbbell (inf.)

http://translate.sandayong.com/cebuano/english/buringog

baloney

nonsense, lies, deception = bullsh!t

Baloney, this is nothing but an idiot's fantasy.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=baloney

baloney, n. - pretentious or silly talk or writing

bilgewater, boloney, bosh, drool, humbug, tommyrot, tosh, twaddle, taradiddle, tarradiddle, hokum, meaninglessness, nonsense, nonsensicality, bunk - a message that seems to convey no meaning

jargon, lingo, patois, argot, vernacular, slang, cant - a characteristic language of a particular group (as among thieves); "they don't speak our lingo"

Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.

IANS  |  Manila  October 16, 2013 Last Updated at 15:46 IST


The death toll in the powerful earthquake in central Philippines has reached 144, a government agency said Wednesday afternoon.

Of the dead, 134 were from Bohol, nine from Cebu and one from Siquijor, Xinhua quoted Rey Balido, operational officer and spokesman of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, as saying.

Another 291 people were injured and 23 others were still missing. Over three million people were affected in the provinces of Bohol, Cebu and Siquijor.

By Wednesday, 67 percent power was restored in Bohol, Balido said.

The quake occurred at 8.12 a.m. Tuesday with the epicentre at a depth of 33 kilometers.

Philippines President Benigno Aquino III flew to Cebu province early Wednesday afternoon to assess the damage caused by the 7.2 magnitude earthquake.

He made an aerial inspection of the affected areas and distributed relief material to the victims.

Unforgettable


Songwriter: IRVING GORDON
Artist: NAT KING COLE


Unforgettable, that's what you are
Unforgettablethough near or far
Like a song of love that clings to me
How the thought of you does things to me
Never before has someone been more

Unforgettable in every way
And forever more, that's how you'll stay
That's why, darling, it's incredible
That someone so unforgettable
Thinks that I am unforgettable too

Unforgettable in every way
And forever more, that's how you'll stay
That's why, darling, it's incredible
That someone so unforgettable
Thinks that I am unforgettable too


Unforgettable lyrics © BOURNE CO.

Quote from: islander on October 15, 2013, 09:48:45 PM
di na na swiss knife, nyor.  bol-anon knife na na.

He he, any specific town?

"It means that the active phases of the Valley Fault is approaching. Many research studies indicate that the estimated magnitude will be around 7 or more," the MMEIRS said.

The study recommends that in order to manage the potential earthquake disaster in Metro Manila, an earthquake disaster mitigation plan should be prepared and actions must be started as soon as possible.

The disaster management plan will focus on raising awareness of concerned organizations, employ a comprehensive disaster management approach, and strengthen coordination between the central government to local governments and communities.

Magnitude-7.2 quake in NCR soon?

The MMEIRS does not predict when the "Big One" will hit Metro Manila as it only shows the potential effects of major earthquakes so the government and the public may prepare.

However, it noted that an earthquake generated by the West Valley Fault, which is considered to potentially cause the largest impact to Metro Manila, is "approaching."

The study said the West Valley Fault has moved four times and generated strong earthquakes within the last 1400 years. The approximate return period of these tremors is less than 500 years and no event along the fault line is known after the 1600s.

Metro Manila divided

The 2004 study said Metro Manila will possibly be separated into four regions by the impact of a magnitude 7.2 earthquake.

The western part of Metro Manila will be isolated from other parts of the region due to fires and building collapse.

In the the eastern part of the metro, all road networks running east to west will be broken due to the fault movement. Other roads from north to south in fault areas will be difficult to use due to the high number of collapsed buildings.

Geographical and building collapse will also separate the northern and southern parts of Metro Manila. The MMEIRS said the intersecting areas between Manadaluyong and Makati has a high possibility of building collapse.

The MMEIRS also showed that several areas possess urban vulnerabilities against earthquake damage such as difficulties in evacuation, flammability and building collapse.

This building collapse will directly affect large numbers of people, the MMEIRS said, since it is estimated to cause 34,000 deaths and 114,000 injuries. Additional 18,000 fatalities are expected due to the fire spreading after the major earthquake.

"This human loss, together with properties and economy losses of Metropolitan Manila will be a national crisis," the MMEIRS summary said.

Intensity VIII and IX will be felt alongside Markinia River and Manila Bay and the tremor will damage nine bridges and 1,100 medium and high-rise buildings in the metro. Other pertinent structures will also be heavily damaged, including 115 schools, 14 hospitals, and 16 fire and police stations.

The MMEIRS said the powerful earthquake will also result in several fire outbreaks and cut 30 kilometers of power lines and 95 kilometers of telephone cables, and damage 4,000 points of water supply.

By Louis Bacani (philstar.com) | Updated October 16, 2013 - 10:23am


MANILA, Philippines - What could happen if the magnitude-7.2 earthquake that struck Bohol province on Tuesday hits a highly urbanized area like the National Capital Region?

According to the 2004 Metro Manila Earthquake Impact Reduction Study (MMEIRS), a magnitude 7.2 earthquake will devastate the entire metropolis, killing more than 50,000 people while destroying infrastructures, damaging power and water sources, and causing fire outbreaks.

The study, which was conducted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency, showed 18 scenario earthquakes in Metro Manila to enable the government to anticipate the damages and lay out an impact mitigation and reduction plan.

The MMEIRS revealed that due to a potential magnitude 7.2 earthquake generated by the West Valley Fault, at least 40 percent of the total number of residential buildings within Metro Manila will be affected. About 170,000 houses will collapse while 340,000 more will be partly damaged.

Aledel Cuizon said the quake that caught her in her bedroom sounded like "a huge truck that was approaching and the rumbling sound grew louder as it got closer."

She and her neighbours ran outside, where she saw concrete electric poles "swaying like coconut trees." It lasted 15-20 seconds, she said.

Cebu city's hospitals quickly moved patients into the streets, basketball courts and parks.

Cebu province, about 570 kilometres (350 miles) south of Manila, has a population of more than 2.6 million people. Cebu is the second largest city after Manila. Nearby Bohol has 1.2 million people and is popular among foreigners because of its beach and island resorts and famed Chocolate Hills.

President Benigno Aquino III said he would travel to Bohol and Cebu on Wednesday.

Regional military commander Lt. Gen. Roy Deveraturda said he recalled soldiers from holiday furlough to respond to the quake. He said it damaged the pier in Tagbilaran, Bohol's provincial capital, and caused some cracks at Cebu's international airport but that navy ships and air force planes could use alternative ports to help out. --The Associated Press

"We ran out of the building, and outside, we hugged trees because the tremors were so strong," said Vilma Yorong, a provincial government employee in Bohol.

"When the shaking stopped, I ran to the street and there I saw several injured people. Some were saying their church has collapsed," she told The Associated Press by phone.

As fear set in, Yorong and the others ran up a mountain, afraid a tsunami would follow the quake. "Minutes after the earthquake, people were pushing each other to go up the hill," she said.

But the quake was centred inland and did not cause a tsunami.

Offices and schools were closed for a national holiday â€" the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha â€" which may have saved lives.

The earthquake also was deeper below the surface than a 6.9-magnitude temblor last year in waters near Negros Island, also in the central Philippines, that killed nearly 100 people.

The highest number of dead â€" 18 â€" were in the municipality of Loon, 42 kilometres (26 miles) west of Carmen, where an unknown number of patients were trapped inside the Congressman Castillo Memorial Hospital, which partially collapsed. Rescuers were working to reach them, said civil defence spokesman Maj. Reynaldo Balido.

As night fell, the entire province was in the dark after the quake cut power supplies. Windy weather and rain also forced back a military rescue helicopter.

Authorities were setting up tents for those displaced by the quake, while others who lost their homes moved in with their relatives, Bohol Gov. Edgardo Chatto said.

Extensive damage also hit densely populated Cebu city, across a narrow strait from Bohol, causing deaths when a building in the port and the roof of a market area collapsed.

The quake set off two stampedes in nearby cities. When it struck, people gathered in a gym in Cebu rushed outside in a panic, crushing five people to death and injuring eight others, said Neil Sanchez, provincial disaster management officer.

Death toll in Philippines quake jumps to 93, most from Bohol epicenter; some patients trapped
http://www.thespec.com/
48 minutes ago
By Bullit Marquez


CEBU, Philippines - The death toll from a 7.2-magnitude earthquake that struck the central Philippine island of Bohol on Tuesday rose to 93, as rescuers struggled to reach patients in a collapsed hospital. Centuries-old stone churches crumbled and wide areas were without power.

Bohol police chief Dennis Agustin said 77 of the deaths came from the province. At least 15 others died in nearby Cebu province and another on Siquijor Island.

The quake struck at 8:12 a.m. and was centred about 33 kilometres (20 miles) below Carmen city, where many small buildings collapsed.

Many roads and bridges were reported damaged, making rescue operations difficult. But historic churches dating from the Spanish colonial period suffered the most. Among them was the country's oldest, the 16th-century Basilica of the Holy Child in Cebu, which lost its bell tower.

Nearly half of a 17th-century limestone church in Loboc town, southwest of Carmen, was reduced to rubble.

73 dead as quake hits Philippine tourist islands


Quake of 7.1-magnitude struck at 0012 GMT near Balilihan; authorities said the death toll could still climb


AFP 
First Published: Tue, Oct 15 2013. 04 54 PM IST


Cebu, Philippines: A powerful earthquake killed at least 73 people on Tuesday as it tore down modern buildings, destroyed historic churches and triggered terrified stampedes across popular tourist islands in the Philippines.

Fifteen of the confirmed fatalities were in Cebu, the country’s second most important city and a gateway to some of its most beautiful beaches, the national disaster agency reported.

The 7.1-magnitude quake killed another 57 people in the neighbouring island of Bohol, famed for its rolling “Chocolate Hills”, while one other person died on nearby Siquijor, which attracts tourists with its pristine white sands.

Robust growth in mineral products (183.2 percent), total agro-based products (83.8 percent), petroleum (115,374.8 percent) and forest products (86.5 percent) also contributed to the strong export performance in August.

“With this growth, the Philippines was the strongest performer among its East and Southeast Asian neighbors in terms of export growth in August 2013,” Tungpalan said.

Following the Philippines as top export performer, Viet Nam recorded an annual increase of 15.5 percent. Most trade-oriented economies in the East and Southeast Asian region showed positive export performance in August 2013, except for Japan and Indonesia.

Japan remained as the top exports destination of the Philippines in July 2013, accounting for 25 percent of the country’s total export receipts. This was followed by the US (12.6 percent), China (10.5 percent), Singapore (8.5 percent), and Hong Kong (7.6 percent).

For the first eight months of 2013, Philippine export earnings decreased marginally by 0.8 percent to $35.0 billion from $35.3 billion in the same period in 2012. (PR)

Exports grow to P4.6B
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/
Tuesday, October 15, 2013


THE National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) said merchandise exports grew for the third consecutive month this year, outperforming selected countries in Asia in terms of export growth in August 2013.

This statement came after the National Statistics Office (NSO) reported that merchandise exports grew by 20.2 percent in August 2013 to $4.6 billion, from $3.8 billion a year ago.

Neda officer-in-charge (OIC) and Deputy Director-General Rolando G. Tungpalan said this growth was supported by brisk overseas sales in all major commodity groups.

“We are now reaping the benefits of our efforts to diversify the country’s exports base as seen in the increasing revenues from agro-based, forest, mineral and petroleum products. This, when combined with strong performance of manufactured goods, will bring our exports industry to full recovery and sustained growth,” he said.

Manufactured goods, which contracted in July, posted a turnaround last month as it rose 8.7 percent to $3.7 billion in August 2013. Hike in exports of garments, wood manufactures, chemicals, and machinery and transport equipment offset the slight decrease in electronic exports during the period.

Quote from: islander on October 08, 2013, 12:34:32 PM
huwaton na lang kaha nato ang stepdaughter's cousin thrice removed.  tingalig naay chimney.

Na hala. Kanang naay unggoy na lang aron madali.

Quote from: islander on October 14, 2013, 10:22:16 PM
pinalit na niya nga cotton candy uy.  iya lang gilukdo.

Aha! Ga-imagine diay ka nga imong kitkit-kitkiton...

Hmm, 31 ways? Hurot akong bilib aning mga Tsaynis...

"Thank you for catching it for me!"

EXPORTS | Notes

Exports measure the amount of goods or services that domestic producers provide to foreign consumers by. It is a good that is sent to another country for sale. In the past, export of commercial quantities of goods normally required involvement of the customs authorities in both the country of export and the country of import. More recently, with the advent of small trades over the internet such as through Amazon and e-Bay, exports have largely bypassed the involvement of Customs in many countries due to the low individual values of these trades. Nonetheless, these small exports are still subject to legal restrictions applied by the country of export.

26. 痴汉 chÄ«hàn â€" Idiot/fool. Uncommon â€" probably another dictionary-only word.

27. 胸大无è,,' xiōngdàwúnÇŽo â€" Not just an idiot, but a big-breasted bimbo. Slang.

28. è,,'缺氧 nÇŽoquÄ"yÇŽng â€" Literally, “brain lacks oxygen.” Refers not just to an idiot, but specifically one who can’t express oneself. You might say to such a person, ä½ è,,'子进水了 nǐ nÇŽozi jìnshuǐ le, meaning, “Your brain is flooded.”

29. 笨货 bènhuò â€" Idiot. Literally, “stupid commodity.”

30. 大å,»ä¸ªå,,¿ / 大å,»ä¸ª dàshÇŽgè[r] â€" Idiot. Northern slang, meaning, “big dumby.”

31. 笨伯 bènbó â€" Idiot. Uncommon. 书面语 shÅ«miànyÇ" (formal/written language).

21. 无知è€... wúzhÄ«zhÄ› â€" Long-winded form of idiot â€" same as æ,,šäºº yúrén.

22. 憨子 hānzi â€" Idiot. Rare, regional slang.

23. 笨ç"œ bènguā â€" Same as å,»ç"œ shÇŽguā and å'†ç"œ dāiguā.

24. 笨贼 bènzéi â€" Idiot. Uncommon. Literally, “stupid burglar.”

25. æ,,šæ°" yúméng â€" Idiot/fool. Uncommon.

16. 饭桶 fàntÇ'ng â€" A good-for-nothing â€" a “rice bucket” â€" that is, someone who can only eat but not doing anything of note.

17. å,»é€¼ shÇŽbÄ« â€" Idiot. A popular new slang expression. Literally, “stupid cunt”. Probably derives from 牛逼 niúbÄ«, “cow’s cunt”, another popular expression, which equates to “fucking awesome” in English. Appropriately vulgar, but extremely common. Alternative/polite form: å,»B.

18. 蠢驴 chÇ"nlǘ â€" Idiot. Literally, “stupid donkey.” Term of abuse.

19. 低能å,,¿ dÄ«néngr â€" Idiot. Can also mean one who gets high marks in school but fails at life. Wenlin lists a third meaning as, “sb. with little or no ability in a certain area.”

20. 笨家伙 bènjiāhuo â€" “Stupid guy.”

11. 蠢人 chÇ"nrén â€" Idiot.

12. 木头人 mùtourén â€" Idiot, specifically one who stares blankly, as if in a trance, or one who is slow in understanding. Dated.

13. å,»å¸½å,,¿ / å,»å¸½ shÇŽmào[r] â€" Idiot or idiotic. Colloquial.

14. 草åŒ... cÇŽobāo â€" Idiot. Literally, “straw bag”. Dated.

15. è,,'残 nÇŽocán â€" Idiot. New and popular slang. Literally, “brain impairment.” Can also function as an adjective: “brain-dead”. Is often used to put-down the 富二代 fùèrdài â€" the supposedly idiotic children of wealthy families in China.

6. 蠢才 chÇ"ncái â€" Same as 蠢货 chÇ"nhuò. Alternative form: 蠢材.

7. å,»ç"œ shÇŽguā â€" Idiot, used either as a term of abuse or jokingly between friends. Literally, “dumb melon.”

8. å'†ç"œ dāiguā â€" Same as å,»ç"œ shÇŽguā.

9. 笨蛋 bèndàn â€" Idiot, as a term of abuse.

10. 二百äº" èrbÇŽiwÇ" â€" A simpleton. Slang. Literally, “two hundred and fifty” â€" have no idea why.

31 Words For Idiot In Chinese
http://carlgene.com/


It seems I’m a bit obssessed with synonyms.

Just for fun, here is a list of 31 ways to say “idiot” in Mandarin, ranging from most common to least common.

1. 白痴 báichÄ« â€" An idiot. Can also mean idiocy as a disease.

2. å,»å­ shÇŽzi â€" Idiot. Less formal.

3. å'†å­ dāizi â€" Same as å,»å­ shÇŽzi.

4. æ,,šäºº yúrén â€" Idiot in 书面语 shÅ«miànyÇ" (formal/written language); literary register.

5. 蠢货 chÇ"nhuò â€" Idiot, a “stupid commodity”. Used as a term of abuse.

Green Day decided to produce a rock opera, inspired by the work of The Who and several musicals. The album follows the life of Jesus of Suburbia, a character with "antihero" image created by Billie Joe Armstrong. Following early recording at Studio 880 in Oakland, California, the band finished the album at Ocean Way Recording in Hollywood.

You can't say she's not duly warned!

Quote from: Lorenzo on October 12, 2013, 03:31:12 AM
Paranoid and suspicious thoughts are a significant clinical topic. They regularly occur in 10â€"15% of the general population, and persecutory delusions are a frequent symptom of psychosis.

Quote from: islander on October 14, 2013, 10:06:06 PM
too big a percentage to be of any comfort.

Hmm, 10-15%? Sa ato pa, out of 10 active TB members, let's say, malagmit naay 1-1.5% suffering from persecutory delusions?

If the early 21st century is going to be marked with battles over birth, then the second half may well be marked with battles over death. You’ve probably heard of nanobots. Basically, they’re microscopic machines that will one day swim around in our bloodstream, keeping us fit and healthyâ€"and potentially immortal.

That’s right: Immortal. According to futurist Ray Kurzweil, in as little as 20 years the average life expectancy may well be “forever.” See, proper nanobots would be capable of destroying pathogens, keeping our brains in shape and even reversing ageing. In short, it would be the holy grail of science: Eternal life. And that’s where the problems start.

For one thing, not everyone on Earth will receive these nanobots. Let’s say they’re an American innovation, can you really imagine our scientists selling them on to, say, North Korea? So then you have to decide who does and doesn’t get these wonder-bots. Do poor people get them? What about the homeless? Are criminals banned from immortality? If not, are we comfortable with the idea of giving eternal life to rapists and pedophiles? Will immortality become the preserve of the elite? Now, obviously this is all a bit prematureâ€"nanobots aren’t anywhere near the market yet. But if it comes to pass, this is going to be one of the biggest, most controversial leaps in the whole of human history.

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/


Exports in Philippines decreased to 4580986 USD Thousand in August of 2013 from 4836427 USD Thousand in July of 2013. Exports in Philippines is reported by the The National Statistics Office (NSO). Philippines Exports averaged 1273162.84 USD Thousand from 1957 until 2013, reaching an all time high of 5340847 USD Thousand in September of 2010 and a record low of 23000 USD Thousand in October of 1957. Philippines is the world’s largest producer of coconut, pineapple and abaca (more than 7 percent of total exports revenues). The country is also a major exporter of electronic products like processors, chips and hard drives (over 40 percent of exports). Other exports include: woodcrafts and furniture (5 percent), metal components (3 percent), wiring sets (3 percent), apparel and clothing, bananas, petroleum products and tuna. Main export partners are: Japan (28 percent of total exports), United States (15 percent), China (12 percent), Hong Kong (9 percent), Singapore (8 percent), Thailand (5 percent) and Germany (4 percent). This page contains - Philippines Exports - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

2013-10-15

Quote from: Lollapalooza on October 15, 2013, 05:41:42 PM


A portion of the Dauis Church in Bohol was also damaged by the earthquake earlier today.

Photo by YouScooper Michelle Francisco.

There are no reports of any infections from contact with dead bodies. There are, however, reports of injury caused by the handling of bodies and moving of rubble to dispose of bodies. Waiting for the right facilities to be able to move bodies safely is significantly less dangerous than removing bodies as rapidly as possible. Unfortunately, the belief that the dead pose a danger is deeply ingrained within the public consciousness and the media, so unacceptable practices are likely to continue.

There’s also the fact that personnel resources serve better elsewhere. A team of people gathering bodies is a team that is not building shelters or rescuing survivors. The WHO’s guidelines state that gathering bodies should be the last priority after rescue and restoring vital infrastructure.

Apart from directing resources away from where they’d be better used, there is a direct negative impact on the surviving population. Not being able to find the bodies of loved ones or dispose of them in line with local customs makes it harder for people to recover from their loss. Bodies should be stored as appropriate until such time as proper funeral rites can be carried out in order to reduce psychological distress as much as possible. Mass graves can also cause legal problems, like issues over the right to recover remains.

The Whole Bushel

When an oil pipeline exploded in Nigeria in 2006, health officials began fumigating the bodies of the deceased. A spokesman said, “We are worried about the tragic health implications of allowing human parts to decay and cause disease in the place.” The idea that dead bodies cause disease is a popular one, and it’s easy to see why: Decomposing bodies smell, and people associate decomposition with bacteria. Yet the risk to public health from a large number of bodies is described by the World Health Organization as “negligible.” A rush to dispose of them can do much more harm than good. There has never been a single epidemic traced to dead bodies following a disaster. Following an earthquake in India in 2001, bodies were cremated en masse. This wasted effort also had the unfortunate side effect of using up the local wood supply, leaving survivors without enough fuel for heating.

http://knowledgenuts.com/
By Alan Boyle on Tuesday, October 15, 2013


In A Nutshell

Whenever there is a large disaster, one of the first things authorities will often wish to do is dispose of dead bodies for fear of a disease outbreak. Officials in many countries have rushed to burn or bury bodies to prevent an epidemic. Yet dead bodies don’t cause disease outbreaks. The World Health Organization states that it is better to wait and dispose of bodies normally via local custom and that mass burial or cremation should never be carried out. It has a detrimental impact on the mental health of survivors, and there is no real benefit. Disease in disaster areas is often caused by poor sanitation among the living.

Quote from: taga tigbao on October 15, 2013, 02:31:35 PM
All of these are gone now. Pastilan. Memories na lamay nabilin ani.

Perhaps the most recurring theme of all, however, is the concept of the cat not as an extension of the human self, as a dog might be, but rather as something otherworldly, mysterious, with a mind of its own onto which we may project our human intentions and interpretations, but one which we will ultimately never comprehend â€" a force of nature, often as uncontrollable as its elements, as in this 1960 poem by Elizabeth Bishop:

ELECTRICAL STORM

Dawn an unsympathetic yellow.
Cra-aack! â€" dry and light.
The house was really struck.
Crack! A tinny sound, like a dropped tumbler.
Tobias jumped in the window, got in bed â€"
silent, his eyes bleached white, his fur on end.
Personal and spiteful as a neighbor’s child,
thunder began to bang and bump the roof.
One pink flash;
then hail, the biggest size of artificial pearls.
Dead-white, wax-white, cold â€"
diplomats’ wives’ favors
from an old moon party â€"
they lay in melting windrows
on the red ground until well after sunrise.
We got up to find the wiring fused,
no lights, a smell of saltpetre,
and the telephone dead.

The cat stayed in the warm sheets.
The Lent trees had shed all their petals:
wet, stuck, purple, among the dead-eye pearls.

In fact, the adage of the nine lives crumbles in the face of the very real grief for a beloved cat, a pattern that recurs across the collection. In a 2003 poem, Frank Wright exorcises his:

ON THE DEATH OF A CAT

In life, death
was nothing
to you: I am

willing to wager
my soul that it
simply never occurred

to your nightmareless
mind, while sleep
was everything

(see it raised
to an infinite
power and perfection) â€" no death

in you then, so now
how even less. Dear stealth
of innocence

licked polished
to an evil
luster, little

milk fang, whiskered
night
friend â€"

go.

In his 1992 piece “Cat Man,” George Steiner tells the story of “the most illustrious, compelling cat in the history of literature” â€" a Montparnasse tabby named Bébert, who was abandoned by his Germany-bound owners at the onset of WWII and met his second owner, the novelist, physician and “manic crank” Louis-Ferdinand Destouches, better-known as Céline, in Paris. Bébert promptly proceeded to enthrall the man into describing him as “magic itself, tact by wavelength.” When the cat’s time came in his Sphinx-like years at the end of 1952, the obituary Destouches wrote â€" rivaled only by E. B. White’s remembrance of his beloved dog Daisy â€" was nothing short of a literary micro-masterpiece:

After many an adventure, jail, bivouac, ashes, all of Europe … he died agile and graceful, impeccably, he had jumped out the window that very morning. . . . We, who are born old, look ridiculous in comparison!

In a 2001 poem, Henri Cole explores the parallel universe of felines from another angle:

MYSELF WITH CATS

Hanging out the wash, I visit the cats.
“I don’t belong to nobody,” Yin insists vulgarly.
“Yin,” I reply, “you don’t know nothing.”
Yang, an orange tabby, agrees
but puts kindness ahead of rigid truth.
I admire her but wish she wouldn’t idolize
the one who bullies her. I once did that.
Her silence speaks needles when Yang thrusts
his ugly tortoiseshell body against hers,
sprawled in my cosmos. “Really, I don’t mind,”
she purrs-her eyes horizontal, her mouth
an Ionian smile, her legs crossed nobly
in front of her, a model of cat Nirvana â€"
“withholding his affection, he made me stronger.”

In a fictional story-within-a-story titled “Town of Cats,” Haruki Murakami hands his protagonist a short story written by an obscure German author sometime between the two World Wars, which paints a whimsical picture of Tokyo’s feline underbelly:

In fact, this is a town of cats. When the sun starts to go down, many cats come trooping across the bridge â€" cats of all different kinds and colors. They are much larger than ordinary cats, but they are still cats. The young man is shocked by this sight. He rushes into the bell tower in the center of town and climbs to the top to hide. The cats go about their business, raising the shop shutters or seating themselves at their desks to start their day’s work. Soon, more cats come, crossing the bridge into town like the others. They enter the shops to buy things or go to the town hall to handle administrative matters or eat a meal at the hotel restaurant or drink beer at the tavern and sing lively cat songs. Because cats can see in the dark, they need almost no lights, but that particular night the glow of the full moon floods the town, enabling the young man to see every detail from his perch in the bell tower. When dawn approaches, the cats finish their work, close up the shops, and swarm back across the bridge.

One curious pattern that presents itself across the art is the apparent golden age of feline-themed covers in the 1970s â€" a decade in which the visual depiction of cats was as much of a New Yorker cover meme as it is an internet one today.

In 1953, Robert Graves, freshly abandoned by a lover who had left him to marry another man, uses a feline metaphor to be moan the phenomenon of women succumbing to unworthy men:

CAT GODDESSES

A perverse habit of cat-goddesses â€"
Even the blackest of them, black as coals
Save for a new moon blazing on each breast,
With coral tongues and beryl eyes like lamps,
Long-leggèd, pacing three by three in nines -
This obstinate habit is to yield themselves,
In verisimilar love-ecstasies,
To tatter-eared and slinking alley-toms
No less below the common run of cats
Than they above it; which they do not for spite,
To provoke jealousy â€" not the least abashed
By such gross-headed, rabbit colored litters
As soon they shall be happy to desert.

Tucked between the essays and short stories are also a number of delightful poems, such as this 1960 gem by Ted Hughes:

TOMCATS

Daylong this tomcat lies stretched flat
As an old rough mat, no mouth and no eyes.
Continual wars and wives are what
Have tattered his ears and battered his head.

Like a bundle of old rope and iron
Sleeps till blue dusk. Then reappear
His eyes, green as ringstones: he yawns wide red,
Fangs fine as a lady’s needle and bright.

A tomcat sprang at a mounted knight,
Locked round his neck like a trap of hooks
While the knight rode fighting its clawing and bite.
After hundreds of years the stain’s there

On the stone where he fell, dead of the tom:
That was at Barnborough. The tomcat still
Grallochs odd dogs on the quiet,
Will take the head clean off your simple pullet.

Is unkillable. From the dog’s fury,
From gunshot fired point-blank he brings
His skin whole, and whole
From owlish moons of bekittenings

Among ashcans. He leaps and lightly
Walks upon sleep, his mind on the moon
Nightly over the round world of men
Over the roofs go his eyes and outcry.

(The poem was penned the year Frieda, his daughter with Sylvia Plath, was born â€" a child nursed on nursery rhymes â€" so one can’t help but find in Hughes’s playful verses the hint of an irreverent nursery rhyme.)

Thus amused, the cat would be transported by the swiftly traveling Robo-Coyote to a cat fun fair â€" an enclosure within which cats would be free to chase robo-birds, robo-shrews and moles, robo-squirrels, and even robo-butterflies. A cat’s hunting and playing instincts are said to be separate from its hunger cycles, so the sequestered cats need not eat the robo-prey should they manage to catch any. Food would be supplied on a contract basis by cat-food companies eager to show the world of animal- and bird-lovers that they are doing their best to tackle the migratory-bird issue, while assuring their shareholders that they are improving their bottom line: with the Robo-Coyote deployed in full force, one need not feel guilty about “owning” a cat. And the pet-food companies could even sponsor their own Robo-Coyotes, which could have advertising banners painted on their sides.

What to do? No point in proposing a cat cull: the same people who love birds also love cats â€" I am among their number â€" and the animal-rights folks would be aroused in their irate thousands. Whatever is set in motion must not harm any cats by a single whisker, and must be enjoyable for kittydom as well.

Hence my Robo-Coyote. With foreseen advances in robotics and 3-D soft-tissue printing, the engineering of this artificial game warden should be well within reach. The Robo-Coyote would prowl the forests, ignoring skunks, porcupines, and rabbits, attuned to feral cats alone and emitting whiffs of mating hormones and possibly some soulful howls in order to attract them. Unlike a real coyote, the Robo-Coyote would be able to shinny up trees. Once a cat had been lured close enough, the Robo-Coyote’s mouth would open wide. The cat would then enter, descend the throat, and find itself in a comfortable nook, complete with cushion and squeaky-mouse catnip toy.

In a 2013 piece, Margaret Atwood â€" she of ceaseless practicality â€" offers an entertaining solution to the most menacing problem cats present in the ecosystem, a brilliant satire of everything from techno-utopianism to corporate opportunism:

My proposal is called the Robo-Coyote. It would address the fact that billions of migratory birds are killed in North America every year by cats, both feral and owner-operated. When you add to that the mega-millions killed by urban high-rises whose proprietors foolishly keep the lights on all night, it’s a wonder there’s a bird left in the skies. And, since birds are a main predator of forest insects, their dwindling is already affecting the health of our forests. … What’s more, the cats â€" millions of them â€" are gobbling up small rodents that are staple fare of owls, falcons, and hawks, which may cause a further decline in those bird numbers.

(What more tragic testament to Quentin Bell’s notion of pets as ornaments?)

In the process of unraveling the common for the bizarrely uncommon, we also learn some curious factoids:

It is not hard to buy a tiger. Only eight states prohibit the ownership of wild animals; three states have no restrictions whatsoever, an the rest have regulations that range from trivial to modest and are barely enforced. Exotic-animal auction houses and animal markets thrive in the Midwest and the Southeast, where wildlife laws are the most relaxed.

On the internet â€" and, bear in mind, that was 2002 â€" things are even worse: On an exotic animals website, you could buy two baby tigers “with white genes” for $1,800 each. Orlean marvels:

It is so easy to get a tiger, in fact, that wildlife experts estimate that there are at least fifteen thousand pet tigers in the country â€" more than seven times the number of registered Irish setters or Dalmatians.

And so we get the perfect Orleanean spear at the heart of the human condition in all its absurdity:

You know how it is â€" you start with one tiger, then you get another and another, then a few are born and a few die, and you start to lose track of details like exactly how many tigers you actually have.

One of the best pieces in the collection, both for the sheer joy of exquisite language and for its disarming insight into the baffling paradoxes of the human-feline psychic bond, is a long 2002 feature by Susan Orlean, titled “The Lady and the Tigers.” Beyond the undeniable freakshow mesmerism of a true story about a New Jersey woman who owns more than two dozen tigers for no other reason than her intense love for the species, the essay, much like good visual caricature, also reveals a whole lot about the psychology of our ordinary relationships with small domestic cats through this woman’s extraordinary relationship with her gigantic felines. Take, for instance, the evolution of the woman’s tiger menagerie:

After arriving in Jackson, Byron-Marasek got six more tigers â€" Bengal, Hassan, Madras, Marco, Royal, and Kizmet â€" from McMillan and from Ringling Brothers. The next batch â€" Kirin, Kopan, Bali, Brunei, Brahman, and Burma â€" were born in the back yard after Byron-Marasek allowed her male and female tigers to commingle. More cubs were born, and more tigers obtained, and the tiger population of Holmeson’s Corner steadily increased. Byron-Marasek called her operation the Tigers Only Preservation Society. Its stated mission was, among other things, to conserve all tiger species, to return captive tigers to the wild, and “to resolve the human/tiger conflict and create a resolution.”

Indeed, despite the bountiful and often ardent cat-lovers among literary history’s famous pet-owners, Lane challenges the very notion that cats and literature go together:

Perhaps we need to rethink the assumption, deep-rooted but far from well grounded, that writers and cats are a good mix. Sure, Mark Twain had cats, such as Sour Mash and Blatherskite, and, up at the more louche and loping end of American literature, in the life and work of Poe, Kerouac, William Burroughs, Charles Bukowski, Edward Gorey, and Stephen King, you are never that far from the patter of ominous paws; whether a cat has been reared on a diet of neat Burroughs would find a niche at The New Yorker, however, is open to debate. We aim at the scrutable, the translucent, the undrugged, and the verified; whether we even get close is not for us to say, but such aspirations find no echo in the bosom of the cat. The cat sneers at clarity and career plans, and even its major stratagems can be dropped upon a whim. . . .

More than anything, however, the anthology embodies the cat’s defining characteristic: its cluster of opposites, rolled together into a giant hairball of cultural attitudes â€" something, perhaps, at once uncomfortably and assuringly reflective of our own chronically conflicted selves. Lane writes:

So it is, as this well-fed book stretches out in languor, that the array of feline opposites starts to emerge. Cats must be destroyed; cats should be saved. Cats are like us; no, cats are not of this world. Cats can be savored for their fellowship, then eaten for their flesh. . . . Cats exist in these pages, as they do throughout our lives, both as obsessively singular … and as a barely controllable mass, doomed to proliferate forever, like poison ivy or biographies of Napoleon. Above all, for every cat who is liked, accepted or worshipped from afar, there is another who peers into our eyes â€" those hopeless orbs, superfluous at night â€" and spies only horror, indifference, and fear.

Even Joyce, Lane tells us, was privy to it â€" in the fourth chapter of Ulysses, he tackled a “very specific quandary, the spelling of a cat’s ululation … and came up with the infinitesimal swell of ‘mkgnao’ into ‘mrkgnao.’” Lane illustrates the affectionate absurdity of it all with a tongue-in-cheek invitation: “Try both, out loud, but not after eating crackers, and see if you can tell them apart.”

Lane considers the singular allure of using the feline psyche as literary fodder:

This will never be anything but challenging, even if you wear motorcycle gauntlets and a knight’s visor, but it remains a quest to which many writers are lured. Perhaps they view it as a kind of scratching post â€" ready-made, abrasive chance to sharpen their natural skills.

In the foreword, the great New Yorker film critic Anthony Lane lays out the decrees of cat-connoisseurship:

The first rule of felinology: you need to learn to look at cats down to the last whisker, every bit as closely as they look at you. To them, remember, nothing is lost in the dark.

And another solemn dictum:

Serious cat people, like first-rate art critics, are chivvied by passion into perspicacity. Believing is seeing.

So bespeaks The Big New Yorker Book of Cats, the highly anticipated feline sequel to last year’s canine edition â€" a shiny, well-fed tome that gathers the best cat-coddling articles, essays, short stories, poems, cartoons, covers, and other feats of literature and art from the New Yorker archives. Spanning nearly nine decades, the collection featuring contributions from such celebrated minds as John Updike, Margaret Atwood, James Thurber, Susan Orlean, and even the patron saint of “the other side,” famed dog-lover E. B. White.

“Dogs are not about something else. Dogs are about dogs,” Malcolm Gladwell proclaimed in the introduction to The Big New Yorker Book of Dogs, one of the best art books of 2012 and among the finest pet-related books of all time. Cats, on the other hand â€" despite their long history as literary muses, poetic devices, creative catalysts, and targets of artful grievances â€" are largely about something else, about some facet or other of our human needs, desires, and conceits: our relationships, our cities, our grappling with mortality.

The Big New Yorker Book of Cats
By: Maria Popova


“Serious cat people, like first-rate art critics, are chivvied by passion into perspicacity. Believing is seeing.”