MikeLigalig.com

Poland was the only EU country that recorded growth during the global financial crisis in 2007 and 2008 and, statistically, Poles are among the hardest-working people in Europe. Stressed-out couples in Warsaw or Poznan simply have little understanding for the church prohibiting artificial insemination. A large part of the Polish population, particularly in the cities, has experienced an enormous upswing in recent years. Gay people living openly has become normal in many places and fewer and fewer women are willing to eschew careers to have children, as the church would like them to.

Pawel Wronski, a church expert at the respected daily Gazeta Wyborcza, says the dispute surrounding Lemanski is a fundamental one. It reveals a "major conflict over what shape the church should take. Should it be more open and engage with believers and non-believers -- or should it be a shamanic church?"

The controversy surrounding the fearless priest underscores just how distant the Catholic Church has become from its flock in Poland. Some 90 percent of Poles still identify themselves as faithful Catholics, but ever less are attending church services. For many, faith has become a totally private issue.

During the Nazi occupation and later under the communists, the Catholic Church was considered the true protector of Poland's national identity. The formula applied that anyone who was Polish was also Catholic. But 24 years after the fall of the Iron Curtain and nine years after Poland's accession to the European Union, the public image of the clergy is predominantly negative. Bishops and priests seem to be preoccupied with internal church intrigues and are failing to supply answers to the people on everyday issues -- at least that's the image many have of the church.

Wojchiech Wishes Successor Well

Despite the show of support from his congregation, Pastor Wojciech ultimately decided to resign. He said he still considered the bishops' decision to be unfair, but that he would yield. "Today you are pushing a car, but tomorrow you will flip it over or possibly even hurt somebody," he sternly told his followers. Lemanski then packed his things and left the parsonage. He said he will wait for a decision from the Vatican regarding his dispute with the church hierarchy, but that he wishes his successor well.

When, on Sunday, three envoys dispatched by Hoser showed up at Lemanski's church, they were quickly surrounded by an angry crowd. "This is our parish," they called out. Lemanski said he still considered himself to be shepherd of his flock according to canonical law. The three clerics finally retreated after they were jeered at and booed. They barely managed to get into their car when the crowd began pushing the vehicle in the direction of Warsaw. After that, the Polish edition of Newsweek ran a cover story describing Lemanski as the "Church's No. 1 Enemy".

Lemanski, who was ordained in 1987, was never a compliant priest. He repeatedly used his pulpit and his blog to voice his criticism of the church. He has accused the church leadership of not doing enough to oppose anti-Semitic tendencies among Poland's Catholics. He has also critcized the establishment's lenient treatment of clerics accused of sexual abuse, and its fierce rejection of artificial insemination and contraceptives. His vocal criticism drove Henryk Hoser, the archbishop of Warsaw-Praga, to suspend Lemanski last week. But Lemanski wrote the archbishop a letter informing him that he wouldn't budge.

Pastor Wojciech Lemanski stepped up to his small pulpit on Wednesday morning to hold what may be his last sermon at his church in the town of Jasienica near Warsaw. The slender cleric, with his close-cropped gray hair, has become a household name in Poland in recent weeks. Newspapers have run stories about him and he's been a topic of discussion on television in what has been dubbed "Pastor Lemanski vs. the Curia." The case shows that support for the church is even crumbling in devoutly Catholic Poland.

By JAN PUHL, SPIEGEL
July 20, 2013



PHOTO: Polish priest Wojciech Lemanski meets with his parishoners in Jasienica near Warsaw, Poland, July 14, 2013.
(Leszek Szymanski/AFP/Getty Images)


He's loved by his congregation but loathed by the archbishop. Rebellious priest Wojciech Lemanski is seen as the church's No. 1 enemy in Poland. His dismissal highlights the deep divide between church authorities and the faithful in this staunchly Catholic nation.

Quote from: islander on July 21, 2013, 02:22:26 PM
anyone nga makaplete, parahan gyod sa comet.  mao nga sugdi nag pangita ug imong kaugalingong treasure.

Which one? Treasure of Yamashitaliling? Bwahaha!

Paingon galing si Madam mosakay sa Comet Ison...

Angay makabasa ani ang dog lovers sa TB...

Four horizontal views of Rockall, from the four wards (according to the little map) â€" from the east, the north, the west and the south. On the fig. 4 there is visible Hall’s Ledge, on fig. 4-5 there is the broken navigational beacon. On fig. 2-5 there are showed colonies of birds and sea-weed. Notice the guano-layer. Author of the photos is Andy Strangeway.
http://www.ondrejdanek.cz/

Volunteers from Greenpeace with their solar pod, 1998
http://www.ondrejdanek.cz/

Security pod with the flag of the Royal Navy and with two marines in full ceremonial dress; a navigational beacon above them, 1971
http://www.ondrejdanek.cz/

Winter waves breaking over the islet in January 1943

The southern face of Rockall in 2005. The neighbouring Hasselwood Rock is visible by breakers directly to the right of the islet.

In 1956 the British scientist James Fisher referred to the island as "the most isolated small rock in the oceans of the world." The neighbouring Hasselwood Rock and several other pinnacles of the surrounding Helen's Reef are however smaller, at half or less the size of Rockall and equally remote. Yet these formations are technically not considered islands or points on land per se, as they are often submerged completely, only revealed momentarily under certain types of ocean surface waves.

The ownership of Rockall is disputed. The islet is claimed by Denmark (for the Faroe Islands), Iceland, Ireland and the United Kingdom. All four governments have made submissions to the commission set up under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The issue was included in the provisional agenda of the meeting of the commission to be held in New York from 7 March to 21 April 2011 and recommendations pursuant to Article 76 of the Convention were made.

From Wikipedia





Rockall (Irish: Rocal, Scottish Gaelic: Rocabarraigh) is a small, uninhabited, remote rocky islet in the North Atlantic Ocean. It gives its name to one of the sea areas named in the shipping forecast provided by the British Meteorological Office.

Since the late 16th century Rockall, a 20-metre-high rock in the Atlantic Ocean, has been noted in written records, although it is likely that some northern Atlantic fishermen knew of the rock before these historical accounts were made. In the 20th century the location of the islet became a major concern due to oil and fishing rights, spurring continued debate amongst several European nations.

Today Is Beautiful Simply Because We're Alive...

...and Kicking...

Dobby was voiced by Toby Jones in the film adaptations of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows â€" Part 1. In the Comic Relief spoof, Harry Potter and the Secret Chamberpot of Azerbaijan, he is played by Basil Brush. IGN put Dobby as their 24th top Harry Potter character, with his death described as "one of the most touching moments in the series." In NextMovie.com's Harry Potter Mega Poll, Dobby was voted the No. 1 favourite magical creature in the series.

Dobby makes his last appearance in Deathly Hallows when Aberforth Dumbledore sends him to rescue the protagonists from Malfoy Manor (despite the promise made to Harry in Chamber of Secrets never to try to save Harry's life again); but is killed in the process.

Dobby's name is derived from a creature in English folklore. This creature performs household chores and is kind to children, as is the character in the series.

Dobby returns in Goblet of Fire. Now a free elf, he obtains a paid post at Hogwarts. Dobby also quickly becomes the only house-elf who will clean the Gryffindor common room, when Hermione leaves knitted clothing half-hidden around the room in an attempt to free the elves, which they find insulting. Dobby later appears in Order of the Phoenix, showing Harry the hidden Room of Requirement, which Harry uses for the secret meetings of Dumbledore's Army. When Professor Umbridge finds the meetings later, Dobby enters to warn the group. In Half-Blood Prince Harry entrusts Dobby to watch his compatriot Kreacher when he orders him to work in the Hogwarts kitchens with the other house-elves; and later assigns both to follow Draco Malfoy.

Dobby in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1


Dobby is a house elf owned by the Malfoy family, who first appears in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets to discourage Harry from returning to Hogwarts. Dobby later tries to keep Harry away from Hogwarts by magically sealing off the hidden entrance to Platform 9¾, only to be foiled when the protagonists pilot Arthur Weasley's flying car to school. During a Quidditch match, Dobby enchants a Bludger to chase Harry, hoping to cause him enough injury to be sent home; but the Bludger only manages to break Harry's arm, which is relieved of bones by Professor Gilderoy Lockhart and ultimately mended by Madam Pomfrey. Dobby discloses that when an enslaved house-elf is presented with an article of clothing by his or her master, that house-elf is subsequently set free; and when Harry (after returning from the Chamber of Secrets) discovers that Dobby's master is Lucius Malfoy, he tricks Malfoy into setting Dobby free, a feat that secures him the house elf's undying loyalty.

Bwahaha!

Hallucinations? Makabuang diay ning dapita, mabuang bisan ang buangon nang daan...

Kaluoy. Klaro tawon kaayong nahadlok si Misis...

(All photos: chinaSMACK.com)

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/


A man took to the streets in China to beat up his wife in broad daylight, because she would not listen to him.

A series of graphic images posted on content aggregation website chinaSMACK.com detailed the attack, where the man elbowed his wife to the ground, pinning her in place while he held her by the hair and repeatedly slapped her on the face.

He later dragged her by the hair over several metres as she wailed from the beating, before letting her go with a threatening warning.

It was reported that the couple is from Anhui, and had travelled to Zhejiang province to find work, but disagreed on whether or not they needed separate work certificates. According to the unnamed man, his wife insisted on the two of them applying for work certificates together, triggering his raging attack.

Padung bitaw ni sa akong secret lair sa atoa (ayaw lang mog saba, kuyaw kon masagap ang info sa Dementors)...

Tekret!   

         

Be that as it may, Botoy is waiting for the end of the dog days according to the 1552 edition of the The Book of Common Prayer.

Quote from: hubag bohol on July 21, 2013, 11:10:41 AM
"These are strange and breathless days, the dog days, when people are led to do things they are sure to be sorry for after."

Indeed...

Quote from: hubag bohol on July 21, 2013, 11:11:58 AM
In recent years, the phrase "Dog Days" or "Dog Days of Summer" have also found new meanings. The term has frequently been used in reference to the American stock market(s). Typically, summer is a very slow time for the stock market, and additionally, poorly performing stocks with little future potential are frequently known as "dogs."

Aha! Bantog rang naay morag baboyng irong boang...

Quote from: hubag bohol on July 21, 2013, 11:05:46 AM
Dog Days were popularly believed to be an evil time: "the Sea boiled, the Wine turned sour, Dogs grew mad, and all other creatures became languid; causing to man, among other diseases, burning fevers, hysterics, and phrensies." according to Brady’s Clavis Calendaria, 1813.

Hmm, excellent dog day prose...

Poet J. M. Synge also wrote, "Seven dog-days we let pass, naming Queens in Glenmacnass", in the poem "Queens".

The phrase is used as the title of a sonnet by Australian poet, Howard Firkin.

The 1975 Sidney Lumet film Dog Day Afternoon takes its name from the phrase, as does the 2012 film "Diary of a Wimpy Kid : Dog Days", about the activities of a teenage boy during his summer school holidays.

In the Batman: Arkham City videogame, the serial killer Calendar Man tells stories to Batman about murders he has committed on a major holiday for each month. For the month of August, he chose the Feast Day of St. Roch (which he admitted to be an obscure holiday) as the basis for a dog-related murder, the best way to "celebrate the dog days of summer."

More recently, the term was used in the song "Dog Days Are Over", the second single released by the British band Florence and the Machine.

The term was used as the title of the 2001 Austrian film Hundstage (Dog Days), as it takes place during a hot summer weekend.

The feast day of Saint Roch, the patron saint of dogs, is August 16.

Icelanders refer to the Danish adventurer Jørgen Jürgensen as Jörundur hundadagakonungur ("Jørgen the dog-days King" in Icelandic) since he proclaimed himself lord protector for some months of 1809.

And there is this mention of "dogdays" in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol: Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grind-stone, Scrooge! A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dogdays; and didn't thaw it one degree at Christmas.

In recent years, the phrase "Dog Days" or "Dog Days of Summer" have also found new meanings. The term has frequently been used in reference to the American stock market(s). Typically, summer is a very slow time for the stock market, and additionally, poorly performing stocks with little future potential are frequently known as "dogs."

A casual survey will usually find that many people believe the phrase is in reference to the conspicuous laziness of domesticated dogs (who are in danger of overheating with too much exercise) during the hottest days of the summer. When speaking of "Dog Days" there seems to be a connotation of lying or "dogging" around, or being "dog tired" on these hot and humid days. A similar myth asserts that the time is so-named because rabid dogs are supposed to be the most common then. Although these meanings have nothing to do with the original source of the phrase, they may have been attached to the phrase in recent years due to common usage or misunderstanding of the origin of the phrase.

The Book of Common Prayer would have provided the official liturgical calendar for Jamestown, Virginia, from 1607 so it may be assumed that the Dog Days likely have been known in the New World at least since that time.

Other references

For the ancient Egyptians, Sirius appeared just before the season of the Nile's flooding, so they used the star as a "watchdog" for that event. Since its rising also coincided with a time of extreme heat, the connection with hot, sultry weather was made for all time: "Dog Days bright and clear / indicate a happy year. / But when accompanied by rain, / for better times our hopes are vain."

In John Webster's 1623 play The Duchess of Malfi, the malcontent Bosola states "blackbirds fatten best in hard weather: why not I in these dog days?"

The phrase is mentioned in the short story "The Bar Sinister" by Richard Harding Davis. The main character, who is a street dog, explains "but when the hot days come, I think they might remember that those are the dog days, and leave a little water outside in a trough, like they do for the horses."

The Prologue of Tuck Everlasting, set in the first week of August, says: "These are strange and breathless days, the dog days, when people are led to do things they are sure to be sorry for after."

Please note: Due to introduction of the modern Gregorian Calendar, 10 days must be added to each of the 16th and 17th Century dates referenced above for them to correlate correctly with modern-day dates as concerns astronomical observations and climate. First adopted by Southern European Catholic countries in the 16th Century, the Gregorian Calendar was not used in England or its New World colonies until 1752. This modern calendar accurately calculates the astronomical length of one year (the exact time it takes the earth to orbit the sun) to be 365.2425 days. This corrected the approximated 365 and 1/4 day year length of the previously used Julian Calendar introduced in 46 B.C. Because the length of each Julian Calendar year was 11 minutes 48 seconds too long, over the centuries, seasonal changes gradually occurred on earlier and earlier dates. The Gregorian Calendar uses a formula to reduce from 100 to 97 the number of leap years (extra days) in a 400-year period thus cutting the average calculated length of a year to its actual duration. By 1752 when the Gregorian Calendar was adopted by England, the Julian Calendar had fallen behind by 11 days total since 46 B.C. Upon implementation of the Gregorian Calendar, those days were added back by jumping overnight from September 2nd to September 14th, 1752, thus catching the calendar up with the seasons.

According to the 1552 edition of the The Book of Common Prayer, the "Dog Daies" begin July 6th and end August 17th. But this edition, the 2nd book of Edward VI, was never used extensively nor adopted by the Convocation of the Church of England. The lectionary of 1559 edition of the Book of Common Prayer indicates: "Naonae. Dog days begin" with the readings for July 7th and end August 18th. But this is noted as a misprint[2] and the readings for September 5th indicate: "Naonae. Dog days end".

This corresponds very closely to the lectionary of the 1611 edition of the King James Bible (also called the Authorized version of the Bible) which indicates the Dog Days beginning on July 6th and ending on September 5th. A recent reprint of the 1662 edition of the Book of Common Prayer contains no reference to the Dog Days.

The dates

In Ancient Rome, the Dog Days ran from July 24th through August 24th, or, alternatively, from July 23 through August 23rd. In many European cultures (German, French, Italian) this period is still said to be the time of the Dog Days.

The Old Farmer's Almanac lists the traditional period of the Dog Days as the 40 days beginning July 3rd and ending August 11th, coinciding with the ancient heliacal (at sunrise) rising of the Dog Star, Sirius. These are the days of the year with the least rainfall in the Northern Hemisphere.

The Romans referred to the dog days as diÄ"s caniculārÄ"s and associated the hot weather with the star Sirius. They considered Sirius to be the "Dog Star" because it is the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major (Large Dog). Sirius is also the brightest star in the night sky. The term "Dog Days" was used earlier by the Greeks (see, e.g., Aristotle's Physics, 199a2).

The Dog Days originally were the days when Sirius rose just before or at the same time as sunrise (heliacal rising), which is no longer true, owing to precession of the equinoxes. The Romans sacrificed a brown dog at the beginning of the Dog Days to appease the rage of Sirius, believing that the star was the cause of the hot, sultry weather.

Dog Days were popularly believed to be an evil time: "the Sea boiled, the Wine turned sour, Dogs grew mad, and all other creatures became languid; causing to man, among other diseases, burning fevers, hysterics, and phrensies." according to Brady’s Clavis Calendaria, 1813.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


The phrase dog days refers to the sultry days of summer. In the Northern Hemisphere, the dog days of summer are most commonly experienced in the months of July and August, which typically observe the warmest summer temperatures. In the Southern Hemisphere, they typically occur in January and February, in the midst of the austral summer.

Malinawon jamo si Jonathan Livingstone Stevengull...

New identities (and, as in the case at hand, multiple identities) are needed only by those suffering from identity crisis. --Prof. Hubagum Boholum, Ph.D. in Waynahotology

Quote from: Lorenzo on July 21, 2013, 09:44:15 AM
hmmm, awww, dat is da sixty four dollar question.

Hmm, in dollars jud? Pang milyonir diay...

YES! 


NO!   

The common misconception of dogs' color capacity stems from the animal's short supply of color receptors, commonly known as cones. Humans have three cones while dogs only have two, giving us a wider variety of color to choose from. Each cone is sensitive to a different wavelength of light, each of which is combined into different amounts and creates all the hues of the color wheel. This works the same way as taking the three primary colors â€" red, green, and blue â€" that are used when projecting light through the retina (eyes lens) and mixing them together to create a wide-range palate of shades and hues. But because dogs only have two cones, their ability to see color is limited and comparable to a human with a red-green colorblindness, which is a result of being born with only two cones as well. Nevertheless, while the matter of two cones rather than three is true for dogs, it's obvious that they're better perceivers of color than we thought.

Researchers were satisfied with their conclusive results. And, if they could expand their findings on a larger scale in the future, professional dog trainers and eye dog trainers could potentially gain valuable information. Currently, such trainers avoid using colors as cues or reward-based systems, relying solely on brightness and shade.

After all of 90 trials, the researchers found more than 70 percent of all dogs based their decision off of color and not brightness of the label. Six out of the eight tested dogs used color to identify the meat-accessible box, 90 to 100 percent of the time. Although it was a small sample size of mixed breeds, the overwhelming majority of dogs used color to determine which box would lead them to the meat.

After researchers realized the dogs could clearly learn which color associated with the accessible food source, they changed the box's label. The dog that had learned a dark yellow paper meant accessible meat was given only the choices of dark blue or light yellow. If the dog chose the dark blue labeled box, it indicated to researchers that the dog based its decision on brightness and shade. But it turns out that the dog didn't choose the dark blue box and chose the light yellow box instead. The team thus concluded that the dog's meat association was based off of color and not brightness.

Researchers began the experiment by placing four boxes in front of each dog. Each box contained a small piece of meat and was labeled either light blue, dark blue, light yellow, or dark yellow. However, only one of the boxes was unlocked and labeled the same color each trial, allowing dogs to recognize which one contained the meat. The dogs quickly learned which color coordinated with the unlocked box of meat, and repeated training 10 times a day for nine days.

http://health.yahoo.net/
By Samantha Olson
Sat, Jul 20, 2013





Contrary to what we once thought, dogs aren't limited to a world of blacks, whites, and greys; in fact, they can recognize the color of an object better than the brightness of it. In a study published Wednesday in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, a team of Russian researchers reported that dogs have the ability to see color.

Dementia pud baya kon ang hair dryer masaypan na nga armalite...

Kind of generic man ni sa many rural areas sa Pinas...

Maayo ni nga grupo kay creative instead of destructive...

Workers build a stage on Copacabana beach in preparation for the upcoming visit by Pope Francis in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, July 16, 2013. Pope Francis will travel to Brazil and participate in World Youth Day events from July 22-28. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

"To put together the money necessary for the trip and our stay, since we're so poor, we had to ask for help from others and organize food fairs, selling noodles with chicken sauce, hamburgers, sodas and other fast food," said Ismael Diaz, who organized a group of 300 young people traveling from the Virgin of Rosario parish in the city of Luque.

Chilean youths told similar stories of bake sales, raffles and shaking cans in the streets to raise money for the trip.

"It's something I have always wanted to do. It's important for any young Catholic person to attend and to reconfirm their faith," Ezequiel Sanchez, a 28-year-old small business owner, said before he and 18 others from his church boarded their flight from Mexico City.

AFIP's press office refused to comment on the controversy, which prompted an official public complaint from the church: "We made many appeals to various government agencies, but we have not received official responses about the possibility of changing money," the statement said.

Paraguay doesn't limit currency trading, but poverty is a grim reality for many members of the Catholic church in that country.

But despite months of lobbying by the Vatican's top diplomat in Argentina, Emil Paul Tscherrig, the church got no reprieve from Argentina's tax agency, AFIP, which refused to loosen currency controls so that pilgrims might be able to trade their devaluing pesos for Brazilian reals at favorable official exchange rates.

Pilgrims wanting to buy Brazilian currency in Argentina were forced to turn to illegal traders, getting about half as much money in return for their pesos. Those wealthy enough to have credit cards can use those in Brazil, and later pay a 20 percent penalty to the Argentine government for each purchase.

In all, 350,000 young Catholics signed up, similar to previous World Youth Days that later attracted much larger crowds. In any case, Brazilian authorities prepared to receive a million or more visitors during the pope's weeklong stay.

Many Argentines had already planned to attend last year, "but everything got bigger after March 13, with the boom that was generated by the news that the Pope is from our land and our city," said the Rev. Marcelo Miceli, trip coordinator for the Buenos Aires archdiocese.

The diocese channeled contributions and was able to subsidize all-inclusive trips for $500 a person, Miceli said. "We've received a lot of help from the community, many donations. It has generated an incredible wave of solidarity."

That includes President Cristina Fernandez, who cast aside her political rivalry with the former Buenos Aires cardinal after he became pope, and plans to make more displays of affection next week. While Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff invited South American leaders to the final Mass on July 29, Fernandez also plans to attend Monday's opening ceremony, Argentina's Catholic News Agency reported.

Hundreds of young Catholics left Buenos Aires cathedral Friday night in a caravan of buses on the 40-hour, 1,500-mile (2,500-kilometer) trip to Rio. Many others left earlier from provinces around Argentina. About 9,500 signed up from the United States; 5,000 from Paraguay and 4,500 from Mexico.

"We were concerned after Benedict resigned, but when a Latin American pope emerged, so close to young people, it really changed the situation and our numbers grew. A little while ago we thought that there would be 5,000 Chileans and now we see that 9,100 of us are going, more than double what we expected," said Alonso Molina, the 21-year-old coordinator of a group visiting from Chile's Vicarate of Youthful Hope.

Brazil has more Catholics than any other country in the world and its church has struggled to compete with Latin America's vigorous evangelical Christian movements, so it's a logical destination. And while many Argentines were disappointed that Francis didn't choose his native Argentina for his first papal trip outside Italy, they were making the best of it: More than 30,000 Argentines were making the pilgrimage, the largest foreign delegation.

"Like anyone else, there have been times when I haven't had this faith at 100 percent. Now I have more faith than ever, very high. I have my heart completely with God and no one can take me away from there," said Valentina Godoy, who traveled from Santiago, Chile, and shared her feelings from Brazil on a video her local church group posted on YouTube.

Francis joked when he first emerged on the balcony over St. Peters Square that the cardinals had chosen a pope "from the end of the world." But for many Catholics on this side of the Atlantic, he's not only the first Latin American pope. With his history of community outreach, many younger Catholics are saying that he's the first pope they can relate to in a more personal way.

Some of the poorest traveled from so-called "misery villages" in Argentina's capital, thanks to donations from the Buenos Aires archdiocese. Their agenda at World Youth Day includes meeting with other disadvantaged youngsters in Manguinhos, a favela Pope Francis plans to visit, and sharing stories about Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the subway-riding Argentine Jesuit they now affectionately call their "slum pope."

Road trips can be fun, but many have been expressing more profound emotions, excited by the changes they see in the church since Francis was elected in March. His first months as pope have already renewed their faith, many say, by showing how church leaders can get closer to their people and relate to their real-world problems with humor and a common touch.

By Debora Rey (Associated Press) | Updated July 21, 2013 - 4:17am



Hundreds of Argentine faithful will travel to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to attend World Youth Day events from July 22-28 with Pope Francis. A group of Catholics left Buenos Aires cathedral Friday night in a caravan of buses on the 40-hour, 1,500-mile (2,500-kilometer) trip to Rio. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)


BUENOS AIRES â€" Thousands of young Roman Catholics from around the Americas are converging on Rio de Janeiro, taking dayslong bus trips or expensive plane flights that were paid for by baking cookies and holding garage sales, running raffles and bingo tournaments and even begging for coins in public plazas.

Anyone sold his soul to the devil today?

Shooting to prominence by challenging state companies such as pipeline operator Transneft to explain millions of dollars of unorthodox payments, Navalny struck a chord with millions of Russians disgusted by the ostentatious wealth of Moscow's elite.

He accused Putin of ruling a venal elite as "chairman of the board of Russia Inc" and, in his latest slight, compared the president to a toad unwilling to get off a pipeline representing Russia's vast oil wealth.

Opinion polls show Putin remains the most popular politician in Russia. But the longer Russia holds off on reforms to boost its economy, the greater Navalny's chances are of building support among frustrated voters in the big cities. (Reporting By Timothy Heritage; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Once an outspoken nationalist, he was expelled from a liberal opposition party and has promised to crack down on immigration from Central Asia and the Caucasus.

In 2007, Navalny was reported by a state news agency to have been involved in a brawl at a Moscow club. After being ejected by bouncers, he got into a fight on the street and was quoted as saying at the time that he had shot his opponent with an air pistol. Charges were later dropped.

He has toned down his rhetoric over the years and honed his image, focusing on his criticism of the authorities.

COMPLEX CHARACTER

Yet Navalny's character and politics are also more complex than some admiring Western liberals might expect of a Yale-educated lawyer.

While his time in the United States on a fellowship at Yale has forced him at times into denying accusations from Putin supporters that he is a CIA plant, his hostile views on Muslim and Asian migration into Russia's Slavic heartland have at times obliged him to rebuff suggestions he has "fascist" tendencies.

But indicating he was aware of the risks he faced, he said in a later interview: "You need to understand a very simple thing. To keep himself in power, Vladimir Putin is ready to go very far. Much further than just putting me or anybody else in prison. Much further."

He has managed to grasp a mood change in Russia among the urban youth and growing middle class two decades after the Soviet Union collapsed.

"We are not cattle or slaves. We have a voice and we have the strength to defend it," Navalny said in a statement during his 15-day jail term in late 2011.

Such simple, defiant phrases quickly caught on, none more that his description of Putin's ruling United Russia as a party of "swindlers and thieves".

"I realize there is danger, but why should I be afraid?" he told Reuters in an interview at the start of the protests.

Usually dressed casually in a T-shirt and jeans, or sometimes in an open shirt without a tie, he looks and sounds different from most Russian political figures - many of whom dress formally in suits and ties.

"Navalny is the only possible leader I see," a Moscow-based Western banker said of Navalny's position in Russia's fragmented opposition. "He has fire in those blue eyes of his."

Navalny frequently looked disinterested at opposition meetings discussing the protests but came to life at the protests, delivering tub-thumping speeches.

CATCHING A MOOD

The son of an army officer, Navalny grew up mainly in Obninsk, about 100 km (60 miles) southwest of Moscow. He has a law degree and also studied securities and exchanges.

He represents a new, Internet-savvy generation and is seen as a potential threat to Putin even though the former KGB spy runs a tightly controlled political system that he has crafted in 14 years as prime minister or president.

Navalny operates from a sparsely furnished office just off Moscow's Garden Ring road, one of the capital's main thoroughfares, with a small team assisting him in his campaigning against corruption, mostly centered around his blog.

But Navalny is a young politician for the former Soviet world, and he can bide his time. Even if Putin is re-elected in 2018 for another six years, he would be over 70 by 2024 while Navalny would still be under 50.

Navalny has not hidden his presidential ambitions and has registered as a candidate in a mayoral election in Moscow on September 8 even though polls suggest he had little chance of winning. Had he gone straight to jail, Navalny would not have been able to run but the bail decision means he now has a chance of staying in the race.

His sentence - on charges he denied of stealing from a state timber firm - is unlikely to be overturned on appeal and this will bar him from running in the 2018 presidential election.

The surprise decision to free Navalny on bail pending an appeal suggests Kudrin's remarks and protests by thousands of people in cities have caused the Kremlin to rethink.

Within hours, thousands of protesters were out on the streets chanting Navalny's name and "Freedom!" close to the Kremlin. Some wore badges with his name, others distributed leaflets with his portrait.

"If we have even just another couple of months to fight, we will fight," Navalny said after he won bail.

Tall, clean-cut, confident and articulate, Navalny has more potential than any other opposition leader to at least rattle, if not directly challenge, Putin.

Thursday's verdict was seen by many as a sign that the president himself sees him as a threat, even though opinion polls suggest his appeal does not go far beyond the big cities.

"Navalny's sentence looks less like punishment than an attempt to isolate him from society and the electoral process," said former finance minister Alexei Kudrin, a Putin ally.

The 37-year-old anti-corruption campaigner, who was handed a five-year jail sentence for theft on Thursday then freed on bail on Friday, was one of the first protest leaders arrested when demonstrations against Putin took off in December 2011.

After 15 days in jail for obstructing police at a Moscow rally, Navalny emerged as a hero for the protesters, who chanted his name and gave his booming speeches the biggest cheers.

By the time the protests started to fade in the spring of 2012, Putin was back in the Kremlin as president while Navalny had established himself as the opposition's unofficial leader.

By Timothy Heritage
MOSCOW | Sat Jul 20, 2013 1:48pm EDT





(Reuters) - In a battle against President Vladimir Putin that has moved from the streets of Moscow to a courtroom, Alexei Navalny has emerged as the figurehead of a new generation of Russian opposition.

Hmm, pwede ba kaha parahon ang comet kay naa unta koy pasakyon...

Quote from: islander on July 21, 2013, 02:18:13 AM
yeheeey!  finally, makakita na gyod kog comet.  nagmahay ko ni banana republic years ago nga wa ko pukawa paglabay sa comet deep in the night.  years earlier, pila tawon ka adlaw pukawon ko sa akong mama ug kuyogan ngadto sa jones ave. sa cebu city aron mag-atang sa comet.  wa koy swerte.  2013 is my time, after all.

Kaluoy, wa pa tawon diay kakitag comet...

Dali na bitaw ta mohungaw...

Quote from: Lorenzo on July 20, 2013, 11:39:28 PM
To find the egg.

Hmm, why was the egg on the other side of the road?

Hmm, a REAL success story...

Quote from: islander on July 21, 2013, 02:53:16 AM
i don't know how it happened, but when i came back, ang iyang mga bukton nakutkot. 

Nakutkot? Hmm, ilaga must be the culprit.

Dangan jud bitaw ning mga ilaga...

Quote from: islander on July 21, 2013, 02:53:16 AM
a turtle's death wail is one of the saddest i've heard.  mao nga tagam na kog pet turtle.  i named her/him colette.  birthday gift sa akong amiga.  bathroom siya kun adlaw, ibalhin nako sa kwarto kun gabii.  i traveled for a few days.  i don't know how it happened, but when i came back, ang iyang mga bukton nakutkot.  pwerteng hilak.  her death followed after a few days.  paskang luoya, pwerte pod nakong hilak.

This story breaks my heart...

Quote from: chicogon on July 21, 2013, 02:45:54 AM


My gagmayng bao... both river and land turtles

Hmm, himoong turtle soup?