MikeLigalig.com

Judges prepare labels before they measure the weights of crickets during the Beijing Cricket Fighting Competition September 19, 2013. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

Similar to cockfighting but without the blood, the contests put two crickets into a ring the size of a shoebox to determine which is the more aggressive. The reputations of the owners are on the line and there is plenty of betting on the side.

This year, more than 20 teams from across China competed in the two-day National Cricket Fighting Championships, putting forth their most prized contenders - which are named for their physical characteristics - as fans packed into a small, smoky hall to watch the matches broadcast on a screen.

"I raise crickets as a hobby because I admire their positive spirit," said Man Zhiguo, a truck driver who has been involved in the sport for more than 40 years. "They never admit defeat, they have a fighting spirit, so we all like them."

Man Zhiguo trains his cricket with a straw stick for the upcoming national cricket championship at his house in Beijing September 18, 2013. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

By Joseph Campbell | Reuters â€" Thu, Oct 10, 2013



Man Zhiguo's crickets fight each other as he trains them for the upcoming national cricket fighting championships at his house in Beijing September 18, 2013. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon


BEIJING (Reuters) - Goaded with small sticks, the fighters went into battle, pushing and shoving until Red Tooth overpowered Black Foot to win the match and cheers from the crowd.

In Beijing, autumn marks cricket fighting season, a traditional Chinese sport with more than 1,000 years of history.

That's the spirit, my boy. Work out those rickety joints...

Quote from: Lorenzo on October 12, 2013, 03:32:11 AM
Paranoid thoughts have traditionally been viewed as a symptom of severe mental illness. Sartorius et al(1986) present findings from a World Health Organization prospective study in ten countries of 1379 individuals with signs of schizophrenia making first contact with services. Persecutory delusions were the second most common symptom of psychosis, after delusions of reference, occurring in almost 50% of cases.

Persecutory delusions seem clear enough to me, but what are delusions of reference?

The discovery of this unusual planet was made by a telescope that is especially good at detecting dim items at night. At the time, the Pan-STARRS 1 in Hawaii was searching for brown dwarfs or, failed stars. Eugene Magnier of the University of Hawaii did admit that the planet might be a brown dwarf instead of a planet. He says, “We still don't have a good idea about where to draw the line between a planet and brown dwarf."

In terms of detection, both brown dwarfs and this planet emit energy in infrared wavelengths, which show up as the color red. However, i09 notes that the report shows that the planet, referred to as PSO J318.5-22, showed up far redder than any brown dwarf on record.

Going forward, the goal is to see if there are any companion planets around this one, as most things in space don’t form all on their own. But this discovery does allow scientists to study young gas planets more closely, as the blinding light of a star is not in the equation.

Multicolor image from the Pan-STARRS1 telescope of the free-floating planet PSO J318.5-22, in the constellation of Capricornus. The planet is extremely cold and faint, about 100 billion times fainter in optical light than the planet Venus.
N. Metcalfe & Pan-STARRS 1 Science Consortium


Kelsey Waananen
News Examiner
October 11, 2013


About 80 light years away from Earth is a free-floating planet without a sun. On Oct. 10, the LA Times notes that the planet is about six times the six of Jupiter and only about 12 million years oldâ€"which is young. And what we mean by free-floating is that it doesn't have an orbit; it just floats in the galaxy.

Though it is uncertain how the planet came to exist all on its own, one theory is that it began life near a star and was pushed out of its orbit. Another, more likely, theory is that formed from hydrogen gas that condensed.

Hala, sigi. Exercise jud...

French Resistance member Georges Blind smiling in front of a German execution squad. October 1944.  http://imgur.com/

Kon hawoy na jamo ang bukton, nah, mamomo jud ni sija, mosamot kapangag...

Americans distrust big government, and always will. There's ample reason -- especially given the huge sums now bankrolling politicians, from a relative handful of billionaires, big corporations, and Wall Street. But we love our system of government. That's what must be strengthened.

By using tactics perceived to violate that system, the Tea Partiers have overplayed their hand. If they don't stop their recklessness, they'll be out of the game.


ROBERT B. REICH, Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, was Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration. Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century. He has written thirteen books, including the best sellers "Aftershock" and "The Work of Nations." His film, "Inequality for All," will be out in September. He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine and chairman of Common Cause.

And that's exactly what some Tea Partiers have began sounding like -- traitors to the system, radicals for whom the end they seek justifies whatever means they think necessary to achieve it. They began losing support even among Americans who had bought their view of the Affordable Care Act.

So they've had to back down, and soon, hopefully, we can move to the next stage -- negotiating over the size of government. That's should be stronger ground for the Tea Partiers. But the President, Democrats, and any moderate Republican who dares show his face can still gain ground by framing the question properly: The size of government is not the problem. It's who government is for. The best way to reduce future budget deficits is to ensure it's for all of us and not just a privileged few.

That means revenues should be raised from the wealthy, who have never been wealthier -- limiting their deductions and tax credits, closing loopholes like "carried interest," and taxing financial transactions. Spending should be cut by ending corporate welfare -- terminating tax subsidies to oil and gas, ballooning payments to agribusiness, sweetheart deals for military contractors, and the "too big to fail" subsidy for Wall Street's biggest banks. Future health-care costs should be contained by using the government's bargaining leverage over providers (through Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act) to force a shift from fee-for-service to payments-for-healthy-outcomes. And we should spend more on high-quality education and infrastructure for everyone.

The Tea Party Republicans' mistake was to assume that Americans' distrust of big government, and, by extension, the Affordable Care Act, would allow them to ride roughshod over the process we have for making laws.

Their double-barreled threats to shut down the government and cause the United States to default on its obligations if the Affordable Care Act wasn't repealed or at least delayed was a direct assault on our system of government: If even unpopular laws can be gutted by a majority in one house of Congress holding the rest of government hostage, there's no end to it. No law on the books would be safe. (Their retort that Congress holds the "purse strings" and can therefore decide to de-fund what it dislikes is bunk; appropriation bills have to be agreed to by both houses and signed into law by the president, like any other legislation.)

While most of us distrust government, we're indelibly proud of our system of government. We like to think it's just about the best system in the world. We don't much like politicians but we canonize the Founding Fathers, the Framers of the Constitution. And we revere the fading parchment on which the Constitution is written. When we pledge allegiance to the United States we bind ourselves to that system of government. Anyone who seeks to overthrow or undermine that system is deemed a traitor.

No one likes big government. If you're on the left, you worry about the military-industrial-congressional complex that's spending zillions of dollars creating new weapons of mass destruction, spying on Americans, and killing innocents abroad. And you don't like government interfering in your sex life, telling you how and when you can have an abortion, whom you can marry. If you're on the right, you worry about taxes and regulations stifling innovation, out-of-control bureaucrats infringing on your freedom, and government deficits as far as the eye can see.

So when Tea Party Republicans, bankrolled by a handful of billionaires, began calling the Affordable Care Act a "wholesale takeover of American health care," many Americans were inclined to believe them. Health care is such a huge and complicated system, affecting us and our families so intimately, that our inherent distrust of government makes us instinctively wary. It's no accident we're still the only advanced nation not to have universal health care. FDR decided against adding it to his plan for Social Security because he didn't want to jeopardize the rest of the program; subsequent presidents never got close, at least until Obama.

The best argument for the Affordable Care Act is that our current health care system is so dysfunctional -- the most expensive in the world with the least healthy outcomes (highest infant mortality, shortest life spans, worst rates of chronic disease) of any advanced nation -- that we had no choice but to try to fix it. Even so, it's a typical American fix: We're still basing it on private health providers and private insurers. All government does is subsidize the poor, require insurers to take in people with pre-existing health problems, and pay for it by requiring everyone to be insured.

So Republicans are desperately looking for a way of getting out of the hold they've dug for themselves -- and the president has given them one. He told them that if they agree to temporarily fund the government and raise the debt ceiling without holding as ransom the Affordable Care Act or anything else, negotiations can begin on reducing the overall budget deficit.

What's the lesson here? The radicals who tried to hijack America didn't understand one very basic thing. While most Americans don't like big government, Americans revere our system of government. That's why even though a majority disapprove of the Affordable Care Act, a majority also disapprove of Republican tactics for repealing or delaying it.

Government itself has never been popular in America except during palpable crises such as war or deep depression. The nation was founded in a revolution against an abusive government -- that was what the original Tea Party was all about -- and that distrust is in our genes. The Constitution reflects it. That's why it's hard for government to do anything very easily. I've never been as frustrated as when I was secretary of labor -- continuously running into the realities of separation of power, checks and balances, and the endless complications of federal, state, and local levels of authority. But frustration goes with the job.

The Tea Party Republicans' Biggest Mistake: Confusing Government With Our System of Government
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Posted: 10/10/2013 5:54 pm


Robert Reich
Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy,
University of California at Berkeley;
Author, 'Beyond Outrage'


Representative Mo Brooks, Republican of Alabama and a fierce critic of the Affordable Care Act, has just changed his tune. He now says: "My primary focus is on minimizing risk of insolvency and bankruptcy. There are many paths you can take to get there. Socialized medicine is just one of the component parts of our debt and deficits that put us at financial risk."

Translated: House Republicans are under intense pressure. A new Gallup poll shows the Republican Party now viewed favorably by only 28 percent of Americans, down from 38 percent in September. That's the lowest favorable rating measured for either party since Gallup began asking this question in 1992. The Democratic Party is viewed favorably by 43 percent, down four percentage points from last month.

Quote from: hubag bohol on October 11, 2013, 02:42:50 PM

Ka-cruel pud aning iyang agawon, oi, di man siya papahuwayon...

Bawos, Botoy!

(Medieval depiction of the Battle of Liegnitz. Artist unknown.)

Two days after the disaster at Liegnitz, Batu himself crushed the army of Hungary at the city of Mohi, on the banks of the River Sato. The same day, the Croatians frustrated him at the city of Grobnok. Undiscouraged, he headed south again. The next two blows would fall in December, with the destruction of the city of Lahore on the 22nd, and culminating in the destruction of the great city of Pest on Christmas Day. With a string of terrible defeats behind them and a new year soon approaching, Europe was in serious trouble.

However, the expected apocalypse was not to be, for in early 1242, word reached Batu of the death of his father, the Great Khan. Tradition demanded that a successor be chosen, and Batu and Khaidu were forced to return to the capital in Krakorum. They were forced to pull out of Europe, and the decimated nations of Eastern Europe were given a chance to rebuild their homes. Christendom may owe its existence today to the death of an old Asian war chief back in 1241.

(The Battle of Liegnitz by Angus McBride)

In March of 1241, it began. King Boleslav V (the Brave) of Poland was the first to meet the thundering Asian cavalry archers at the city of Krakow. The battle was a disaster, ending in the death of Boleslav and the shattering of his army, the remnants of which fled west to the city of Liegnitz, where the Teutonic Knights (a German Christian military/crusading order founded about a hundred years after the First Crusade) were desperately trying to form an army to stop the Asian advance. Khaidu, leader of the Mongol northern army, led his forces in hot pursuit. On April 9, in Anno Domini 1241, Christendom watched in horror as its proud knighthood, wearing the cross of Christ, was utterly annihilated at the hands of Khaidu. The ruler of Silesia, Grand Prince Henry II, was killed in the battle. The nearby realm of Silesia was swiftly ransacked, but the Bohemian Army finally stopped Khaidu's advance. Undeterred in the least, he merely headed south, for Hungary. The last great hope to stop the Mongols was gone, and the way lay open into Central Europe.

The leader of these Mongol expeditionary forces was Batu, a grandson of the legendary Genghis. He displayed an inheritance of his grandfather's tactical prowess, apparently suffering one known defeat throughout the entire twenty years of the campaigns. Batu first made his presence known in Russia in 1222 on the shores of the Kalka River, where he defeated a force of Russian princes and a native pagan tribe called the Cumans. Five years later, Genghis Khan died, putting Batu's father Ogedai in command of the entire Mongol nation. It is unclear when his forces finally set out, but a fairly clear marker for the beginning of the campaigns was in 1236, when Batu conquered the Volga Bulgars in southwestern Russia. The kingdom of Georgia fell in the same year. In late December of the following year, the Mongols under Batu captured the Russian city of Riazan. The city of Vladimir fell in February of 1238, and then Batu began to attack the northern realms of the Kievan Rus', one of the oldest Russian kingdoms, eventually settling his army by the River Don for about a year. Batu's lightning attacks and swift advances can be at least in part to using the climate to his advantage - he made his best progress in the winter, when the Russian rivers froze over. The crafty Mongol general used them like highways to move his army much faster than he ever could have simply shoving them through the snow. In late 1239, he was on the move again, splitting his force, sending an expeditionary force north under the command of a general named Khaidu, while he attacked the Carpathian Rus' in southwestern Russia and the present-day Balkans. Kiev, the oldest known Russian city, would fall a year later in 1240. The following year, 1241, would be a cataclysmic one for Europe. The Mongols were coming.

The Mongol Invasion of Europe (1222-1242)
http://militaryhistory.about.com/


On Christmas Day of the year 1241, Eastern Europe teetered on the brink of utter destruction. Batu, son of Ogedai Khan, successor to the Great Khan, Genghis, had destroyed Pest, the largest city in all of Hungary. Poland and Russia had already fallen, and now Batu's unstoppable Mongol war machine was poised to conquer whatever it set its eyes on. Early in the next year, the inorexable Asian horde suddenly left as swiftly as it had come upon Europe, affording the devastated realms of the Continent's eastern front a chance to reclaim and rebuild what the invaders had destroyed. It marked the end of a series of campaigns against the West that began back in 1222.

Destroying Angel
Amanita bisporigera

The destroying angel is all white, with a ring on the stalk and a large, saclike cup around the base of the stalk. This deadly poisonous mushroom is very common, growing on the ground in mixed woods and in grass near trees.

Jack-o’-Lantern
Omphalotus illudens (formerly O. olearius)

Jack-o’-lanterns are bright orange to yellowish orange, with sharp-edged gills that descend the stalk. They grow in clusters, at the base of stumps, and from buried roots of oak and other deciduous wood.

Deadly Galerina
Galerina marginata (G. autumnalis)

The deadly galerina has a brownish, sticky cap, yellowish to rusty gills, and a ring on the stalk. It grows scattered or clustered on deciduous and coniferous logs.

Big Red False Morel
Gyromitra caroliniana

The big red false morel is a poisonous mushroom. It has a reddish brown, convoluted, brainlike cap and a whitish stalk stuffed with cottony tissue. It grows singly or in groups in mixed woods.

Big Laughing Gym
Gymnopilus junonius (formerly G. spectabilis)

Big laughing gym mushrooms are large, orangish yellow, and have a ring on the stalk. They grow in clusters on stumps and trunks of deciduous trees, on the ground, or over buried wood.

Amanitas
Amanita spp. (about 600 species, worldwide)

This large group of mushrooms accounts for 90 percent of mushroom-related deaths, so every mushroom hunter should be familiar with amanitas. They contain one of the deadliest poisons found in nature!

Emetic Russula
Russula emetica

The emetic russula has a uniformly red cap with off-white gills and stalk; its flesh and stalk are brittle. It grows singly or in groups, on moss and in mixed woods.

According to a 2003 study, the average age women become mothers in the US is 25.1. I'll be honest, I wasn't ready at 25 but I wish that I would have hit the fatherhood closer to 30.

When you have kids older, you're also more likely interrupting a career to have them, instead of it getting out of the way before you build up a full head of steam on your resume. Could that be contributing to the "maxed out moms" who are finding it harder to "lean in?"

From bubble wrap to life stress to back pains trying to carry the kids and groceries, I won't say I have a regret about having my kids when I did, but things certainly might have been "easier" if I'd settled down earlier, before I knew too much.

When did you have your kids? 20s? 30s? 40s? When do you think the best time to become a parent is?

-By Buzz Bishop

I look at my 6-year-old, and while he has already flown dozens of times, and in my head I know he'd be okay, I wonder if I'd let him fly cross country by himself. I guess it doesn't matter, I'm not allowed to anyway. Nowadays, the youngest an unaccompanied minor can fly on some airlines is 8, and a $100 "babysitting fee" will be added to the cost of the ticket.

And all that fear I have is because I had kids when I was too old.

My wife was 35 when our oldest was born, our second arrived a week before her 38th birthday. I was a few weeks shy of 40 by the time both boys had arrived.

I spent a weekend camping with them in a small town recently. The moms of tweens looked barely into their thirties. They came from towns where you settled down with a high school sweetheart and got about to having a family quickly. They were full of energy, I was exhausted.

The less you know, apparently.

The older we are, the more aware we are of the big bad world and the more likely we are to be a Marlin or a Grug, it would seem.

There is news this week of a 9-year-old who ran away from home and boarded a flight to Las Vegas from Minnesota without a ticket. Okay, there are many issues here, but let's look at the one of people gasping that a 9-year-old was flying on his own. In 1981, my parents placed my 6-year-old sister on a flight from Vancouver to Toronto. By herself. That's a nearly 5 hour flight.

"In those days, we were allowed to take her right onto the plane and as an unaccompanied minor she was seated in the front row so as to be near the flight attendants," she said. "She didn't express any concern other than excitement and to be honest I really didn't give it too much thought either. The importance of visiting grandparents was the overriding emotion I guess."

The Problem with Having Kids when You’re Older
By Babble.com | Parenting â€" 16 hours ago


The world is a safer place than when I grew up in the '70s. I know this to be true. Facts, science, innovation, rules have made it true.

So why am I so paranoid? I asked my mom about the bubble wrapped generation of parents I belong to versus what happened when she was a young parent.

And that's exactly what she said was the difference - she was a young parent, I'm not.

"We were in our 20s," she reminded me. "We didn't know what we were doing and didn't really care. You guys, having kids later in life, you're more aware of the world around you and you are more cautious."

Short story master Alice Munro, who captures the everyday lives and epiphanies of men and women in rural Canada with elegant and precise prose, won the Nobel Prize in literature on Thursday.

Munro is the first Canadian writer to receive the prestigious $1.2 million award from the Swedish Academy since Saul Bellow, who left for the U.S. as a boy and won in 1976. (AP)

"Take me home with you, my friend."

Later life

Onoda was so popular following his return to Japan that some Japanese urged him to run for the Diet. He also released an autobiography, No Surrender: My Thirty-Year War, shortly after his return, detailing his life as a guerrilla fighter in a war that was long over. However, Onoda was reportedly unhappy being the subject of so much attention and troubled by what he saw as the withering of traditional Japanese values. A Philippine documentary interviewed people who lived on Lubang Island during Onoda's stay, revealing that Onoda had killed several people, which he had not mentioned in his autobiography.

In April 1975, he followed the example of his elder brother Tadao and left Japan for Brazil, where he raised cattle. He married in 1976 and assumed a leading role in Colônia Jamic (Jamic Colony), the Japanese community in Terenos, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. After reading about a Japanese teenager who had murdered his parents in 1980, Onoda returned to Japan in 1984 and established the Onoda Shizen Juku ("Onoda Nature School") educational camp for young people, held at various locations in Japan.

Onoda revisited Lubang Island in 1996, donating US$10,000 for the local school on Lubang. His wife, Machie Onoda, became the head of the conservative Japan Women's Association in 2006. He currently spends three months of the year in Brazil. Onoda was awarded the Merit medal of Santos-Dumont by the Brazilian Air Force on December 6, 2004.[10] On February 21, 2010, the Legislative Assembly of Mato Grosso do Sul awarded him the title of "Cidadão do (Citizen of) Mato Grosso do Sul."

Onoda was thus properly relieved of duty, and did not surrender. He turned over his sword, his Arisaka Type 99 rifle (in working order), 500 rounds of ammunition and several hand grenades, as well as the dagger his mother had given him in 1944 for protection. Only private Teruo Nakamura, arrested on 18 December 1974, held out for longer.

Though he had killed people and engaged in shootouts with the police, the circumstances were taken into consideration, and Onoda received a pardon from President Ferdinand Marcos.

Norio Suzuki with Hiroo Onoda, the day Suzuki found Onoda.


Suzuki returned to Japan with photographs of himself and Onoda as proof of their encounter, and the Japanese government located Onoda's commanding officer, Major Yoshimi Taniguchi, who had since become a bookseller. He flew to Lubang where on March 9, 1974, he finally met with Onoda and fulfilled the promise made in 1944, "Whatever happens, we'll come back for you," by issuing him the following orders:

In accordance with the Imperial command, the Fourteenth Area Army has ceased all combat activity.

In accordance with military Headquarters Command No. A-2003, the Special Squadron of Staff's Headquarters is relieved of all military duties.

Units and individuals under the command of Special Squadron are to cease military activities and operations immediately and place themselves under the command of the nearest superior officer. When no officer can be found, they are to communicate with the American or Philippine forces and follow their directives.

Shimada was shot in the leg during a shoot-out with local fishermen in June 1953, following which Onoda nursed him back to health. On May 7, 1954, Shimada was killed by a shot fired by a search party looking for the men. Kozuka was killed by two shots fired by local police on October 19, 1972, when he and Onoda were burning rice that had been collected by farmers, as part of their guerrilla activities, leaving Onoda alone.

Though Onoda had been officially declared dead in December 1959, this event suggested that it was likely he was still alive and search parties were sent out, but did not find him.

On February 20, 1974, Onoda met a Japanese man, Norio Suzuki, who was traveling around the world and was looking for "Lieutenant Onoda, a panda, and the Abominable Snowman, in that order". Suzuki found Onoda after four days of searching. Onoda described this moment in a 2010 interview: "This hippie boy Suzuki came to the island to listen to the feelings of a Japanese soldier. Suzuki asked me why I would not come out..." Onoda and Suzuki became friends, but Onoda still refused to surrender, saying that he was waiting for orders from a superior officer.

Towards the end of 1945, leaflets were dropped by air with a surrender order printed on them from General Tomoyuki Yamashita of the Fourteenth Area Army. They had been in hiding for over a year, and this leaflet was the only evidence they had the war was over. Onoda's group looked very closely at the leaflet to determine whether it was genuine, and decided it was not.

One of the four, Yuichi Akatsu, walked away from the others in September 1949 and surrendered to Filipino forces in 1950 after six months on his own. This seemed like a security problem to the others and they became even more careful. In 1952 letters and family pictures were dropped from aircraft urging them to surrender, but the three soldiers concluded that this was a trick.

Time in hiding

Onoda continued his campaign as a Japanese holdout, initially living in the mountains with three fellow soldiers (Private Yūichi Akatsu, Corporal Shōichi Shimada and Private First Class Kinshichi Kozuka).

During his stay Onoda and his companions carried out guerrilla activities, killed some 30 Filipino inhabitants of the island, and engaged in several shootouts with the police.

The first time they saw a leaflet which claimed that the war was over was in October 1945; another cell had killed a cow and found a leaflet left behind by islanders which read: "The war ended on August 15. Come down from the mountains!" However, they mistrusted the leaflet, since another cell had been fired upon a few days previously. They concluded that the leaflet was Allied propaganda, and also believed that they would not have been fired on if the war had indeed been over.

Early life

Onoda was born on March 19, 1922, in Kamekawa Village, Kaisō District, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan. When he was 17 years old, he went to work for the Tajima Yoko trading company in Wuhan, China. When he was 20, he was enlisted in the Imperial Japanese Army.

Military service

Onoda trained as an intelligence officer in the commando class "Futamata" of Nakano School. On December 26, 1944, he was sent to Lubang Island in the Philippines. He was ordered to do all he could to hamper enemy attacks on the island, including destroying the airstrip and the pier at the harbor. Onoda's orders also stated that under no circumstances was he to surrender or take his own life.

When he landed on the island, Onoda joined forces with a group of Japanese soldiers who had been sent there previously. The officers in the group outranked Onoda and prevented him from carrying out his assignment, which made it easier for United States and Philippine Commonwealth forces to take the island when they landed on February 28, 1945. Within a short time of the landing, all but Onoda and three other soldiers had either died or surrendered and Onoda, who had been promoted to lieutenant, ordered the men to take to the hills.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Hiroo Onoda (born March 19, 1922) is a former Imperial Japanese Army intelligence officer who fought in World War II and did not surrender in 1945. In 1974 his former commander traveled from Japan to personally issue orders relieving him from duty. Onoda had spent almost 30 years holding out in the Philippines. He held the rank of Second Lieutenant in the Imperial Japanese Army.



H. Onoda, c. 1944

Bwahaha!

Quote from: taga tigbao on October 11, 2013, 01:19:16 PM
Golden Rule: Ignore the unignorable.

Hmm, kahinumdom man pud ta ani sa surrender broadcast ni Emperor Hirohito telling his subjects to endure the unendurable.

Quote from: islander on October 11, 2013, 11:42:47 AM
i hereby swear that henceforth i will refuse temptation to think of other animals in this weather report thread.    good girl na ko, okay?

Sureness ka? Bisag mogimaw diri?

Quote from: islander on October 09, 2013, 10:16:58 PM
you wanna be a donkey?  you'll be cute too.  or 

you wanna be cute?  just be a donkey.  or

you didn't know you're cute?  think like a donkey.

"I know I'm cute, and I don't have to think like a donkey. You know why?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36KMzVp37PY#

The teenage Pinoy bagged a score of 194.08 points in the Nelhorn Trophy 2013, landing 7th in the men’s skating category.

Japan’s Nobunari Oda took home the gold medal for the event, followed by American Jason Brown and Canadian Jeremy Ten.

Other male skaters who made it to the Winter Olympics were athletes from Russia, Israel, Romania, Australia, Ukraine and Italy.

Aside from Martinez, another Filipino participated in the Nelhorn trophy in Germany. Alisson Krystle Perticheto placed 18th in the ladies’ category.

In 2010, snowboarder Eden Serina did not make the final cut for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Martinez began figure skating in 2005 after he discovered the sport in a shopping mall ice rink, his biography in the International Skating Union said.

He first joined a skating competition in 2008 and was the first Filipino skater to perform a triple Axel in a competition, the biography said further.

The young Pinoy looks up to 2011 World Champion Patrick Chan of Canada. He also trains with Ilia Kulik, who won in the 1998 Olympics for Russia.

Martinez trains two months a year in the U.S., his biography said. He is joined by his mother, who is part of his coaching team.

By Kim Arveen Patria | Yahoo Southeast Asia Newsroom â€" 6 hours ago



Philippines' Michael Christian Martinez performs his free skating in the men's event during the Four Continents figure skating championships in Osaka on February 9, 2013. AFP PHOTO / TOSHIFUMI KITAMURATOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/AFP/Getty Images



There may be no winter in the Philippines but a Pinoy athlete managed to move excellently on ice.

For the first time, a Filipino figure skater will compete for the Winter Olympics after finishing among the top in recent qualifying games.

Michael Christian Martinez placed 7th place in the Nebelhorn Trophy in Germany September 28, securing a ticket to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia.

The 16-year-old, who was born and raised in Muntinlupa, will break 22 years of Philippine absence from the Winter Olympics.

The last Filipino athlete to compete in the Winter Olympics was skier Michael Teruel, who joined the 1992 games in France.

Hapa, Botoy!

Quote from: islander on October 10, 2013, 01:25:35 AM
an electric chair in disguise?

Pritohanan sa pan-os nga itlog...

Quote from: islander on October 10, 2013, 05:34:40 PM
hehehe, what you perceive as blue is actually violet, and brown for you is actually green.  conclusion: you have technicolor balls. 

Is that so? Well, I hope you like them...

Quote from: islander on October 10, 2013, 05:29:06 PM
in which case, you must be looking at tennis balls instead of monkey balls.

Let's stick to color, never mind kind. Can't blame you, though, if you're familiar with balls the size of tennis balls...

Military, security applications

The university said such tattoos may also have military and security applications, such as in detecting explosives.

Such tattoos can detect chemical compounds while tuning out others, it said.

In the meantime, the researchers are testing the durability of the technology via hand-washing with soap, mechanical strain, and response over extended durations of wear, including during exercise.
"That’s because the device must maintain its sensing capability through the rigors of normal wear and tear," it said. â€" TJD, GMA News

Also, the biosensors will use a conductive polymer that is sensitive to pH-levels in sweat.

The research team is also working on a tattoo sensor for detecting sodium and ammonia in sweat.

With this, doctors could monitor a patient’s physical activity as levels of lactate, sodium and ammonia in sweat are proportional to physical activity.

The university said this solution is "inexpensive, non-invasive and easily disguisable whether applied directly to the skin or sewn discretely into clothing."

GMA News Online â€" 7 hours ago


Soon, the tattoos you wear may be more than just body decoration - they may also help monitor your health by checking your sweat.
Researchers at the University of California-San Diego are working on biosensor tattoos that monitor electrolyte and metabolite levels in one's sweat.

“This technology is useful for people who need to monitor their weight and daily levels of physical activity. The higher the quantity of these chemicals in the sweat the higher that person’s physical activity. By keeping a record of these chemicals we can see whether the patient’s stamina is improving,” grad student Amay Bandodkar said.

The electrochemical biosensors can be mounted on temporary transfer tattoos, which use carbon fiber backbones so they can bend with the skin.

Reactions to the Death of General Diap


Cuba: President Raúl Castro expressed his condolences to the people of Vietnam and said that "the Cuban people will always remember, with admiration and respect, the figure of General Giap and our Revolutionary Armed Forces for their invaluable contribution to the Cuban military doctrine."

France: Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius praised Giap: "I am saddened to learn of the death of General Giap. He was a great Vietnamese patriot, loved and respected by all his people and for the prominent role he played in founding the independence of his country."

Laos: The Lao People's Revolutionary Party Central Commitee, National Assembly, and government, sent their messages of condolences to their Vietnamese counterparts. The message read that "the general tirelessly devoted his wisdom and energy to throwing off the yoke of foreign colonialism" and that "[h]e contributed significantly to enriching the friendly relations, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation between Laos and Vietnam."

Nicaragua: First Lady Rosario Murillo expressed her condolences on behalf of the people of Nicaragua.

Singapore: The government of Singapore said that it was saddened by the death of Vo Nguyen Giap and that he "played a pivotal role in Vietnam's fight for independence."

Venezuela: President Nicolas Maduro expressed his condolences for the death of General Vo Nguyen Giap, who "fought tirelessly against the yoke of the colonizer, both French and American, which for years curtailed the freedom of the Vietnamese people." --Wiki

Do it now!

Isog jamo...

Quote from: islander on October 10, 2013, 06:39:55 PM
a quarter to seven pm here in manila, and the thunderstorm and heavy rains have begun.

Hmm, raining cats and dogs, eh? Any other animals?

Malala has become a household name around the world for her unrelenting advocacy of girls’ education. She has been outspoken on this issue for years with schools in the Swat Valley, a region of northwestern Pakistan, which is regularly attacked by the Taliban.

After being shot in October 2012, Malala was sent to the United Kingdom for emergency surgery and has subsequently settled in the English city of Birmingham.

The attack has not silenced Malala, and this week she published a memoir and gave several high-profile interviews, including one to ABC’s Diane Sawyer. In Pakistan she has drawn criticism from a section of the right wing, who accuse her of folding to Western political pressure and culture. It’s an accusation she vehemently denies.

In the statement given by Schulz, he highlighted the strength Malala has shown. “Malala bravely stands for the rights of all children to be granted a fair education. This right for girls is too commonly neglected.”

The Sakharov human rights prize was created in 1988 to honor Andrei Sakharov, a Soviet physicist and dissident. Also among the nominees this year were three Belarusian dissidents and former NSA employee Edward Snowden.

Malala is currently in New York and will find out tomorrow whether she will win the Nobel Peace Prize. She will receive the Sakharov Prize at a ceremony in Strasburg on Nov. 20.

By William Denselow
Oct 10, 2013 10:45am





Sixteen-year-old Malala Yousafzai, a passionate advocate for peace and education who was shot in the head by the Taliban on her way home from school, has been awarded the Sakharov human rights prize.

Malala, who is from Pakistan and now lives in England, is also a contender for the Nobel Peace Prize, to be announced tomorrow. In receiving the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, she will joins the likes of former Secretary General to the United Nations Kofi Annan and Nelson Mandela in receiving the $65,000 prize, handed out by the European Parliament.

“By awarding the Sakharov Prize to Malala Yousafzai, the European Parliament acknowledges the incredible strength of this young woman,” Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament, said in a statement.

Quote from: islander on October 10, 2013, 05:23:02 PM
that's coy soy green.

So these here blue balls are actually green? I'm color-blind, you know.

Hala! Kujawa...

Stateside fast dance after living life in the fast lane...

(AFP) â€" 45 minutes ago


Bandar Seri Begawan â€" Secretary of State John Kerry announced Thursday he was postponing a visit to US ally the Philippines due to a tropical storm, in the latest setback to US efforts to engage Asia.

Kerry, who had been drafted in to take over President Barack Obama's cancelled trip through Asia, blamed the cancellation on Tropical Storm Nari, which is bearing down on the northeastern Philippines.

"Because of the judgement of our pilots... and the approaching typhoon, we are going to postpone the trip that I was going to make to the Philippines," Kerry told reporters on the sidelines of an Asian summit in Brunei.

Obama was forced to pull out of planned trips to Malaysia, the Philippines and back-to-back regional summits in Indonesia and Brunei due to the US budget crisis, sending Kerry in his stead.

The US budget impasse has caused the first government shutdown in 17 years and raised fears the country could default on its massive global debts.

The situation has left the US scrambling to reassure Asian allies that it is committed to its self-described rebalancing of economic and strategic attention towards Asia.

"I'm sorry not to be there in the next day or so but the good news is I am absolutely committed to returning in a month or so," Kerry said of the Philippine cancellation.

"I'm coming back to the region and I look forward to visiting... our friends in the Philippines."

Kerry had been due to arrive in the Philippines Friday after his visit to Malaysia starting later Thursday.

He made his announcement at a press appearance with Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario, who expressed regret.

"We regret the postponement of Secretary Kerry's visit to Manila," he said. "We, of course, are eager to welcome Secretary Kerry."

Nari was expected to make landfall Saturday on the northeastern coast of the main Philippine island of Luzon, about 150 kilometres (90 miles) north of the capital Manila.

On Thursday it was packing maximum winds of 120 km (75 miles) per hour and bringing heavy rain and strong winds to large parts of the archipelago nation.

Copyright © 2013 AFP. All rights reserved.

Quote from: islander on October 10, 2013, 05:11:34 PM
my bad.  i didn't know dreams can be so complicated.  when life was simpler and the world was a little younger, manamin lang ko, dream na.  and now all this?

This is good protection against diabolic possession, you know...

Quote from: islander on October 10, 2013, 05:09:32 PM
sori po.  di ko suheto unsa nang imong gipanghisgotan.  ay dun anderstand, meyn. --> blue shades 

Don't be coy with me, CJ. You know your pastels, don't you?

Daghan jamong kahibulongan didto sa Florida, an!

Mystery Monkey 2: Possible Patas monkey on the lam in Lakeland
9:30 AM, Oct 8, 2013 



File photo of a Patas monkey. Photo courtesy Brocken Inaglory/Wikipedia


Lakeland, Florida -- Cornelius the Mystery Monkey may be enjoying retirement after his capture last year, but another primate appears to have taken up his moniker in Tampa Bay... this time in Lakeland.

The Lakeland Ledger reports multiple residents in the Pine Ridge Estates spotted a small simian going from yard to yard, eating fruit and raiding bird feeders.

Based on witness descriptions, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission thinks the animal is a Patas monkey. Officials don't believe it is a concern to public safety.

Cameras are being set up in one yard in hopes of capturing images of the monkey, which is believed to be about two or three feet tall.

It's not clear where the monkey came from. In 2008, 15 Patas monkeys escaped from the Safari Wild refuge in Polk County. Officials say it took eight months to recapture all of them.

Another monkey, a rhesus macaque, made national headlines as the "Mystery Monkey" when he eluded capture while roaming Pinellas County for more than two years. 

Wildlife officials safely captured him in October of 2012, and after naming him Cornelius after a character from Planet of the Apes, brought him to live at Dade City's Wild Things.

The zoo plans to introduce a girlfriend for Cornelius in the near future.

Limitations

    The user can only affect sleeping subjects.
        Due to this, Users has a limited amount of time while their target is asleep unless the user also has Sleep Inducement.
        This may be rectified by using "daydreams" or inducing sleep.
    Psychic Shield may cancel this power.
    May be limited to only putting a person in a Nightmare/Dream Realm, not fully controlling their dream
    Users might not warp reality, therefore not being able to damage the target physically.

Variations

    Dream Embodiment
    Nightmare Embodiment
    Nightmare Manipulation

Associations

    Illusion Manipulation
    Mental Inducement
    Mental Manipulation
    Oneiric Reality Manipulation
    Sleep Manipulation
    Telepathy

Applications

    Attack people in their dreams.
    Observe dreams.
    Alternative Dream Universe
    Dream Walking
    Dream-World Manipulation
        Elemental Manipulation
        Flight
        Psychic Constructs
    Dream Imprisonment
    Fear Manipulation
    Oneiric Creation
    Oneiric Reality Manipulation
    Oneiric Slaying
    Pain Inducement
    Precognitive Dreaming
    Psychic Energy Absorption
        Dream/Nightmare Absorption
    Pushing
    Subconscious Manipulation
    Subliminal Messaging
    Teleportation by entering and exiting them near sleeping beings.

Capabilities

User can enter and manipulate the dreams of oneself and others, including modifying, suppressing, fabricating, influencing, manifesting, sensing, and observing dreams as well as nightmares, daydreams, etc. Sometimes the user can even unlock their hidden powers, or even commune with the dead. The user can produce and modify dreams, bestow nightmares or lucid dreaming, entrap people in REM, and promote spiritual/emotional healing within dreams.

In some cases, the user's power extends to the real world, such as wounds inflicted on a sleeping victim and even pulling someone from the waking world into the dream world.

Note: Ordinary human beings can actually achieve through Lucid Dreaming where the person is aware that s/he is dreaming and thus gain control of the dream.

http://powerlisting.wikia.com/



Dream of the Endless (DC Comics/Vertigo) controls sleep, dreams, nightmares, and insomnia.

Power and Ability to: Access and manipulate the dreams of people.

Also Called

    Dream Control
    Dream Power
    Oneirokinesis
    Dreamscaping