MikeLigalig.com

AFP 5 hours ago





A young girl has died in Australia after being bitten by a feared brown snake, officials said on Monday, a rare fatality even though the country is home to some of the planet's deadliest species.

The death of the six-year-old prompted emergency services to warn people to be on their guard against brown snakes, whose bite is often painless. They are known as nervous reptiles that strike with little hesitation.

Police in New South Wales state said the girl was bitten on Friday on a rural property near Walgett, some 660 kilometres (409 miles) northwest of Sydney.

She was taken to a local hospital and given anti-venom before being flown to Sydney Children's Hospital on life support. But her condition worsened and she died on Saturday.

According to official estimates there are about 3,000 snakebite cases in Australia every year, with 300-500 needing anti-venom treatment. Only an average of two a year prove fatal.

Australia is home to 20 of the world's 25 most venomous snakes. The Eastern Brown Snake causes more deaths than any other species, according to the Australian Museum.

Then and now...

Kaluoy intawon...

Ni Jojo C. Ugdol/EIM (Banat) | Updated February 15, 2016 - 12:00am


CEBU, Philippines - Nagtingkagol sa selda sa kapulisan sa Dakbayan sa Carcar ang usa ka 38 anyos nga lalaki human kini nasakpan nga namuso ug nikuha pa og video sa iyang selpon sa babaye nga naligo sulod sa usa ka pension house diha sa Barangay Poblacion III, pasado alas 11 sa nakalabay nga gabii.

Duha ka mga babaye nga parehos nga nag-abang sa usa ka lawak ang mireklamo sa kapulisan human sila gikuhaan og video samtang nagpuli-puli sila nga naligo sa banyo.

Ang duha ka mga biktima nga gitago ang pangalan pulos taga Tarlac ug Dakbayan sa Makati nga edad og 22 ug 31 anyos nga nagtrabaho sa insurance company.

Ang gidakop nga suspetsado mao si Nico Lalilan, lumad nga taga Tuburan ug nag-abang ra usab sa maong pension house.

Matud pa ni Police Officer 1 Raymond Amance, duty desk officer ug maoy nag-blotter sa maong hitabo nga nahinabi sa Banat News mibutyag nga samtang naligo sa banyo ang 31 anyos nga si alyas Apple iyang nabantayan nga nag-uyog-uyog ang kisame.

Sa iyang pagtan-aw sa taas iyang nakita ang tudlo sa suspetsado nga milusot sa kisame hinungdan nga dali kini nga mitawag sa caretaker sa maong pension house kinsa mitawag dayon og polis.

Thinking back to what he had just seen, he imitated and analysed the monkey’s leg movements. They were exactly what he had been searching for! and thus Monkey Kung Fu was formed.

The way the monkeys advanced, retreated, dashed, jumped and turned, proved to be more alive than all the big steps and broad stances used in all the other martial arts of that time. From these observations, he designed the “Monkey steps” which are characterized by narrow paces and quick legs. This would enable better speed and spirit in moving. The “Eight Basic Stances” were combined with the well known “Thirteen Arm and Hand Techniques”. Thus the skill of the Praying Mantis Kung Fu and the liveliness of the monkeys was joined.


More at: http://ensomartialarts.com/monkey-kung-fu/

Monkey Kung Fu was developed by Wang Lang, who had already forged the Praying Mantis kung fu system, found yet another breakthrough while walking in the forests in the mountains. He saw monkeys picking fruits from a tree. As quietly as possible, he approached the tree, yet before he could reach it the monkeys saw him, and instantaneously jumped away. Without thinking, Wang Lang raced after them using his well-trained “nimbleness technique”. Amongst the trees, the monkeys rolled, trotted and jumped, and he was soon left far behind. Panting, Wang Lang wiped off his sweat and laughed.

Emergency withdrawal aron naay pambayad sa pay toilet...

Panpimon Wipulakorn, deputy director-general of the Department of Mental Health, said the economic downturn exacerbated the phenomenon.

"There have always been groups in Thai society that hold such beliefs and economic worries only help to heighten these beliefs," Panpimon told Reuters.

"These people do not have mental health problems."

Thailand has been ruled by a junta since a May 2014 coup and the generals have struggled to revive the export-dependent economy, while promising to restore democracy with an election next year.

Such fads have happened before. After a 2006 coup, many people turned to plasticine amulets, or charms, in the belief they would bring riches.

Devotees of the dolls lavish attention on them.

"My life has changed a lot, for the better," said beauty salon owner Natsuda Jantabtim, 45, who has had her doll - Nong Ruay Jung, or baby so rich, for eight months.

"When I hug her, I know it's love. I tell her I love her all the time."

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha weighed in on Monday saying people who could not afford to buy the dolls should not do so.

"I've never raised a child angel doll," he quipped.

The dolls cost from 1,500 baht ($40) to up to 30,000 baht ($800) and some businesses are tapping in on the craze.

Thai Smile, a subsidiary of national flag carrier Thai Airways, said it would charge passengers who bring dolls on board and would serve them snacks.

But the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand said it would stop airlines selling tickets for dolls over concern they could be used to smuggle drugs.

BANGKOK | BY PATPICHA TANAKASEMPIPAT AND JUARAWEE KITTISILPA



Devotees pay respect to a Buddhist monk as they sit with their 'child angel' dolls during a blessing ritual at Wat Bua Khwan temple in Nonthaburi, Thailand, January 26, 2016.
REUTERS/ATHIT PERAWONGMETHA


A craze for lifelike dolls thought to bring good luck is sweeping Thailand, reflecting widespread anxiety as the economy struggles and political uncertainty persists nearly two years after a coup.

Thailand is predominantly Buddhist and has been modernizing rapidly over the past two or three decades but many people are highly superstitious, their Buddhist beliefs co-existing with notions of animism, astrology and "black magic".

The plastic dolls, about the size of a real baby, are called "look thep", or "child angel".

Devotees buy them in shops or online and invite benevolent spirits to possess them, hoping they will bring good luck.

"The economy is bad right now. Everybody needs something to hold on to," said Mananya Boonmee, 49, a doll owner and seller.

Mananya told Reuters her doll, called Nong Petch, or baby jewel, had helped her win the lottery by telling her what numbers to buy in her dreams.

Before humans went into space, several animals were launched into space, including numerous non-human primates, so that scientists could investigate the biological effects of space travel. The United States launched flights containing primate cargo primarily between 1948-1961 with one flight in 1969 and one in 1985. France launched two monkey-carrying flights in 1967. The Soviet Union and Russia launched monkeys between 1983 and 1996. Most primates were anesthetized before lift-off. Overall thirty-two monkeys flew in the space program; none flew more than once. Numerous back-up monkeys also went through the programs but never flew. Monkeys and apes from several species were used, including rhesus monkeys, cynomolgus monkeys, squirrel monkeys, pig-tailed macaques, and chimpanzees. --Wiki



Sam, a rhesus monkey, flew to an altitude of 88 km in 1959. (NASA)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gw-i_VKd6Wo

Chandra Bahadur Dangi, from Nepal, the shortest adult to have ever been verified by Guinness World Records, poses for pictures with the world's tallest man Sultan Kosen from Turkey, during a photocall in London on Nov. 13, 2014, to mark Guinness World Records Day. Andrew Cowieâ€"AFP/Getty Images

Now, 100 years later, this most mysterious piece of Albert Einstein's imaginings has reached out to scientists on Earth in the form of a chime, a chirp, a sound which one scientist described as what you might hear if you ran your thumb over piano keys from the lowest rumbly bass to middle C. A chirp in C, which left a distant part of the universe more than a billion years ago and rippled outward, beginning a journey to a very different Earth.

An extraordinary group of scientists, starting in the '70s, began work on ways to listen to the universe and perhaps to hear the sound of space and time moving, bending. Over the years, three men, Ronald Drever and Kip Thorne of Cal Tech, and Rainer Weiss of MIT, searched for a way to detect the movement that by this time most scientists believed in but could not observe.

They built a most improbable pair of instruments, one in Washington State, and one in Louisiana called the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory â€" huge tubes and mirrors which could detect and measure impossibly tiny shifts in space and time. And last September, they did.

Two huge black holes fell into one another more than a billion years ago and rattled space and time. And in September, scientists heard that sound and recorded it. It is impossibly impressive, a very great achievement. But one of the things we must celebrate is that 100 years ago, a funny looking little fellow with flyaway hair trained his powerful brain on the universe and imagined what might be true. And was right.

Einstein Saw Space Move, Long Before We Could Hear It
Updated February 13, 2016 7:51 AM ET
Published February 13, 2016 7:22 AM ET
by LINDA WERTHEIMER



Albert Einstein once wrote that he was indebted to a favorite uncle for giving him a toy steam engine when he was a boy, launching a lifelong interest in science. AP


Here we are in an election year â€" once again asking the great see-into-the-future question in politics â€" who will be the next president?

Yesterday, I picked up the paper (I still have a paper to pick up) and read about a man who did see into the future, Albert Einstein. He developed his theory of general relativity in the early 20th century, and in 1915, he announced his theory that space and time are woven together and that events in the universe can cause space and time to move, to bob and jiggle, to stretch and ripple. Einstein's ideas overturned previous ideas of an orderly universe where planets and solar systems revolved in a calm and eternal magnificence.

And this particular notion â€" of space and time moving â€" was, you might say, out there, and not possible to observe.

Reckless Gamblers: How did China’s debt-to-GDP ratio go to 240% from 160% in nine years? How are nonperforming bank loans (if honestly tallied) hovering around 20 percent? There is a recklessness in early stage wealth. It happened in England in the 18th century as exemplified by the South Sea’s fraud and a hundred frauds like it. The recent Sino-Soviet forest stock fraud is an exact mirror. Rapid wealth produces intoxicated investors prone to scams. Remember how the Earl of Grantham in Downton Abby invested a fortune in a fraudulent American railroad. I wonder if there is a Chinese translation of Trollope’s The Way We Live Now?

Lack of Freedom: This is what lies at the heart of points 1-9. There are no institutions like free press, academia, or opposing political parties that can stop the train of failure once it has left the station. Even six-second videos are blocked and censored. This means that all bad decisions are made in a vacuum. Paradoxically, without the rule of law, paralysis has recently set in because one mistake, as judged by someone above you, can result in jail, torture and death. The search for corruption in an economy based on corruption has to be political… otherwise everyone would be in guilty. Nothing can ever be fixed in China until there is freedom. The freedom to publish dissenting opinions, differing analysis and to expose fraud and corruption.

The world has embraced China. Let us hope it is not strangled in the process.

Reading Marx backwards: When Deng Xiaoping, China’s “paramount leader” opened the economy to the world in the late 1970’s he could not have imagined it was to create a Chinese class of one percenters. Opening up China was meant to counterbalance Russia and Japan, to give China a chance to have a voice on the world stage. The nation was just recovering from the political and economic quagmire of the Cultural Revolution… Now, these one percenters control over sixty percent of Chinese assets. They buy Bordeaux Chateaus, Hermes handbags and Impressionist paintings. In the process, they’ve created instability. An attempt to redress this is motivating the anti-corruption campaign of Xi. However, it is more like a power realignment, Al Capone style, than real political reform. Even the disappearances are 1920’s Chicago in nature.

“To get rich is glorious” is also attributed to Deng Xiaoping. What he did not say was how. Thus China has been engaged in a forty-year orgy of land theft, labor theft, asset theft and every imaginable kind of shady business practice. From contaminated milk, pet food, and cooking oil, to criminally inadequate cement, adulterated drugs and corrupt zoning decisions, the Chinese have elevated greed to a new level. No one believes any of the listed ingredients in Chinese foodstuffs or medicine. Everyone has to pay off someone to receive the basics of medical treatment, education, or influence regulation.

FOREX Constipation: Parasitic global trade imbalances and capital controls created a mountain of cash that was held by the Chinese Central Bank. Like the European mountain of butter or the lake of wine, China accumulated trillions of excess foreign cash. This capital was removed from the more productive capitalist countries, who became debtors to China. In return, China recycled this excess cash into unproductive financial instruments like US Treasury Bills and Euro Bonds.

Binge Investing: Having embraced items 1-5 above, China became a binge investor in absurd countries and silly projects. As if to poke the U.S (its largest single-country trading partner) in the eye, China sidled up to Venezuela of all places. Instead of buying oil on the open market, they went deep into infrastructure projects, loans and even endorsed the psychotic foreign policy rantings of Hugo Chavez. No rational government, unless intoxicated by its economic prowess, would do that. The China Syndrome was also applied to Sudan, Zambia, Angola and Nigeria. Look at the bankrupt failed resort in the Bahamas, Baha Mar, if you want to see what “binge capital” looks like.

Basic Gangsterism: Counterfeiting, knockoffs, copyright infringement, theft of intellectual property â€" these were a part of the booster rockets of China’s economic rise. It was all supposed to go away after China joined the WTO in 2001. It didn’t. It just became more institutionalized. Foreign companies needed Chinese “partners” in auto production, healthcare and technology. These “partners” crippled the potential productivity of the investments and led to frequent disputes and even more corruption… as in the GlaxoSmithKline scandals.

Parasitic Global Engagements: When China enters a market, the intention is to destroy indigenous competition. From American to Nigerian to Turkish textile jobsâ€"all down 90 percentâ€"local earning power is destroyed. Everywhere and in every areaâ€"again it’s steel, aluminum, solar panels, toys and electronicsâ€"China hollows out local production. This unbalanced mercantilism, and its resultant loss of customer purchasing power, is what lies behind disappearing Chinese exports. Witness Walmart closing 269 stores. The parasite has weakened its host. All the cash spent on Waldorf Astorias and Manchester soccer teams will not make up for the massive purchasing power drain… inflicted on a global scale.

Ten Reasons China Failed: From Basic Gangsterism to Parasitic Engagements
What happens when liquidity is allocated by political muscle, massive bribery and kickbacks, rather than economics
By Jonathan Russo • 02/11/16 2:30pm


Not withstanding China’s epochal accomplishment in lifting over 300 million people out of poverty while building a world-leading economy, their future appears murky. What went wrong with China’s economy? Inquiring minds want to know. Here is a top ten guide for the perplexed.

Central Planning: Central planning, central planning. The history of the abject failure the Soviet Union’s five-year plans should tell you everything. Command and control economies that report to one man (in a nation of 1.3 billion people) are doomed from the start. Top down economic decisions often look bold and start out highly stimulative, but then degenerate into inefficiency, waste, politics and fraud.

Political Corruption: As the command and control economy generates liquidity, the demand and direction of the distributed capital becomes a political tussle. Decisions on how much steel, cement, coal, glass solar panels, high speed trains and shopping mallsâ€"in short everythingâ€"are not done in China as a cost benefit analysis by risk capital, a job difficult enough in itself. (Witness the capitalist economies’ booms and busts.) In China, this liquidity was allocated by political muscle, massive bribery and kickbacks, rather than economic justifications.

But what is truly monumental about this detection is that it gives humanity the ability to see the universe in a totally new way, scientists said. The ability to directly detect gravitational waves â€" which are generated by the acceleration or deceleration of massive objects in space â€" has been compared to a deaf person suddenly gaining the ability to hear sound. An entirely new realm of information is now available.

"It's like Galileo pointing the telescope for the first time at the sky," LIGO team member Vassiliki (Vicky) Kalogera, a professor of physics and astronomy at Northwestern University in Illinois, told Space.com. "You're opening your eyes â€" in this case, our ears â€" to a new set of signals from the universe that our previous technologies did not allow us to receive, study and learn from."

"Up until now, we've been deaf to gravitational waves," LIGO Executive Director David Reitze, of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), said during an announcement ceremony in Washington, D.C. "What's going to come now is we're going to hear more things, and no doubt we'll hear things that we expected to hear … but we will also hear things that we never expected."


More at: http://www.space.com/31922-gravitational-waves-detection-what-it-means.html#sthash.4VFelvB1.dpuf

By Calla Cofield, Space.com Staff Writer | February 12, 2016 12:11pm ET



A computer simulation showing gravitational waves during a black-hole collision. The discovery has major implications for science.
Credit: MPI for Gravitational Physics/W.Benger-Zib


People around the world cheered yesterday morning (Feb. 11) when scientists announced the first direct detection of gravitational waves â€" ripples in the fabric of space-time whose existence was first proposed by Albert Einstein, in 1916.

The waves came from two black holes circling each other, closer and closer, until they finally collided. The recently upgraded Large Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) captured the signal on Sept. 14, 2015. Not every scientific discovery gets this kind of reception, so what exactly is all the hype about, and what's next for LIGO now that it has spotted these elusive waves?

First of all, detecting two colliding black holes is thrilling by itself â€" no one knew for sure if black holes actually merged together to create even more-massive black holes, but now there's physical proof. And there's the joy of finally having direct evidence for a phenomenon that was first predicted 100 years ago, using an instrument that was proposed 40 years ago.

Five more were found in the next year, including one near Pysht, Wash. Speculation increased, as recounted in a 2008 article in the Toronto Star:

“Speculation ranges from natural disasters, such as the tsunami of 2004, to the work of drug dealers, serial killers and human traffickers.

“One theory concerns a plane crash off Quadra Island three years ago with five men aboard. Only one of the bodies has been found.

“Other theorists believe the coastline is being used as a body dump for organized crime activity; a third scenario is a serial killer is at work.”

But to the disappointment of many a conspiracy theorist, science suggests more mundane answers.

Writing for the Pacific Standard, Spenser Davis pointed out last year that a study on the Puget Sound found that when a body floating in water is “subjected to the push and pull of its environment,” the bones of hands and feet are almost always the first to fall off.

In British Columbia, two of the feet have since been identified as having belonged to people with mental illness, while three others were linked to individuals who likely died of natural causes.

Foul play is not suspected in any of the other cases, though it hasn’t been ruled out, either.

“All of the ones who’ve been identified so far, there’s no mystery,” Gail Anderson, a criminologist at British Columbia’s Simon Fraser University, told the Daily Beast in 2011. “These people were very depressed, unhappy about life, and were last seen heading toward the water. People jump off bridges. They deliberately wish to disappear.”

But there are other points of strangeness. For one, why did the feet only start turning up after 2007, and why have they continued to turn up with unprecedented frequency since then?

The Daily Beast considered the power of the “Vicious Cycle” theory, which suggests that once people became aware of the phenomenon, they started subconsciously - or completely deliberately, in some cases - scanning the shorelines for shoes.

Also a likely answer.

And yet - it’s hard not to wonder.

“There are so many coincidences taking place,” forensics consultant Mark Mendelson told the Daily Beast in 2011. “Everybody who jumps off a bridge is wearing runners?. . . Until you can show me something pathologically concrete that this is a natural separation of that foot from a body, then I’m saying you’ve got to think dirty.” -- http://www.charlotteobserver.com/

“He picked it up and brought it out on to the beach,” she told CBC, “and we had a look at it for about five minutes and we thought, it almost looks like there is an actual foot bone in it.”

Sure enough, the B.C. Coroners Service confirmed that the shoe came with a dismembered foot. As with the others, there’s no telling for exactly how long the foot was in the water, but the regional coroner Matt Brown said the exact model of shoe had gone on the market after March 2013, indicating that it once belonged to someone who went missing between then and last December.

Brown is working with the police to connect the foot to individuals who disappeared from the area around that time.

If history is any indication, however, the identity associated with the foot will stay adrift.

Over the years, armchair sleuths and scientists alike have used a number of terms to describe the feet: severed, dismembered, detached, disarticulated.

Found, but still lost

After the first two feet - both right - were found in British Columbia just six days apart from one another, locals began sounding the alarm, and authorities expressed equal surprise.

“Two being found in such a short period of time is quite suspicious,” Corporal Garry Cox of the Oceanside Royal Canadian Mounted Police told the Vancouver Sun in August 2007.

“Finding one foot is like a million to one odds,” Cox said, “but to find two is crazy. I’ve heard of dancers with two left feet, but come on.”

BY YANAN WANG
Washington Post


They appear on the sand like any old piece of sea detritus. Sometimes they’re found, amid the candy wrappers and cracked shells, by volunteers cleaning up the area. Other times a vacationer might glimpse the grisly discard from the corner of their eye, a serene walk along the beach interrupted just like that.

As more people learned about these discoveries, they attracted morbid scavengers to the Pacific Northwest shorelines, where the Salish Sea connects waterways along the West Coasts of the U.S. and Canada.

What these scavengers sought remains a prickling curiosity: severed feet attached to running shoes, washed up from origins unknown.

Sixteen of these detached human feet have been found since 2007 in British Columbia, Canada, and Washington state. Most of these have been right feet. All of them have worn running shoes or hiking boots. Among them: three New Balances, two Nikes and an Ozark Trail.

The most recent one turned up earlier this week.

Charlotte Stevens of British Columbia was taking a walk with her family on Vancouver Island, the CBC reported, when her husband spotted something in the sand.

It was shoe, that they could see right away. But a closer inspection revealed something more.

“Throughout the years, there’s been an increasing awareness of how human social complexity is remarkably unprecedented in the animal kingdom,” said lead author Benjamin Purzycki, an anthropologist at the University of British Columbia. “So we’ve got to come up with some satisfactory way of explaining how it’s all possible that we can have remarkably complex societies interact with each other but have quite a fair amount of in-group cooperation and coordination as well.”

Scientists have increasingly found a connection between the type of religion these societies have and their ability to expand, Purzycki said. It's part of a growing field of research called evolutionary research studies, which looks in part at the way human societies and human belief systems have co-evolved, and how religious beliefs can bring adaptive advantages. 

“For quite a few decades, cultural anthropologists have repeatedly observed in a variety of ways that there’s this relationship between the kinds of deities or religious systems that cultures have, and their degree of social complexity,” he said.

Many studies have tried to probe this possible relationship but suffered from a variety of shortcomings, Dominic D.P. Johnson of the University of Oxford, who was not involved in the paper, wrote in a commentary.

“Empirical evidence that supernatural beliefs promote cooperation is mounting, but has tended to rely on qualitative, society-level or proxy measures of beliefs,” Johnson wrote. “Study participants have also typically been university students in developed nations, thus omitting the small-scale societies most relevant to the evolutionary problem at hand: how human groups achieved cooperation and made the transition from small to large societies in the first place.”


More at: http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-gods-punishment-society-spread-20160210-story.html

Belief in all-knowing, punitive gods aided the growth of human societies, study says
Religion and the expansion of human society
by Amina Khan    


Belief in moral-watching, all-knowing, punitive gods might have helped human societies grow far beyond small, close-knit groups, a new study shows. Researchers who ran an experiment with a total of 591 people in eight different small-scale societies around the world found that people who believed their deity of choice knew about their misdeeds and would punish them were more likely to play fairly in a game where money was on the line.

The findings, described in the journal Nature, hint at the integral role that certain religious beliefs may have played in the dramatic expansion of human societies.

Part of what has made humans as a species so successful is their ability to form social bonds beyond family ties, developing larger and increasingly complex social networks. Many researchers have tried to explore what traits seem to power humans’ ability to cooperate -- sometimes to their individual disadvantage -- for the benefit of the greater good.

This becomes an even more perplexing question as human societies extended beyond the communities where they might either know or be related to everyone they interact with on a daily basis. How do you treat strangers, if you don’t know whether they will abide by the same social rules that you do?

The fall will be a humanitarian disaster, but it will also be a security nightmare. North Korea's military arsenal, though aged, and probably mostly out of repair, is still enormous, and we should expect warlords to emerge. But this is nothing compared, of course, to the risk related to North Korea's nuclear arsenal, which is still a huge mystery. Do you think ISIS would like to buy a nuclear weapon? Do you think nobody in North Korea would sell it to them?

These are just a few of the most pressing realities concerning North Korea. But it seems to me that the vast majority of policymakers ignore them in the interest of maintaining the status quo for as long as possible â€" a situation that will only worsen the inevitable. But why should policymakers do otherwise? Much better to keep a lid on the problem until their term is over.

I've argued previously that the responsible solution is a military-humanitarian intervention that would secure North Korea's military arsenal and create the conditions for a better future for North Koreans â€" an administration that would transition the economy towards a freer system and, ultimately, reunite North Korea with South Korea. I think China could be brought on board if America demilitarized Korean Peninsula in exchange.

There's a lot to say about this plan â€" there are many things that could go wrong with it, and it would be very hard to pull off. But at least it's a plan.

That's the thing that brings me despair: Nobody seems to be thinking about how to actually improve the situation in North Korea. More fundamentally, nobody seems to be thinking about how bad things truly are or how plausible, indeed inevitable, the worst-case scenario is.

Everybody seems to be seeing this as a chess game. It's not. It's a ticking time-bomb, with millions of hostages. Trying to play the opponent to a draw by dragging your heels might or might not be a good strategy in chess, depending on the game. But thinking that a ticking bomb will go away if you just wait it out is folly.

Let's find a way to defuse it.


http://theweek.com/articles/597748/north-korea-heading-cataclysmic-collapse--nobody-cares

Associated Press
February 11, 2016


COLOMBO, Sri Lanka â€"  An international rights group says the Sri Lankan government's decision to appoint the civil war-winning general to Parliament contradicts pledges to investigate abuses alleged to have occurred under his command.

Human Rights Watch says Thursday the appointment of former army chief Sarath Fonseka signals that the government may protect senior military leaders suspected of abuses.

Fonseka commanded Sri Lanka's army from 2005 until the end of war in 2009.

The rights group says Sri Lankan forces under Fonseka's command were implicated in numerous instances of shelling of civilians and hospitals, rape and other sexual violence, and summary execution of prisoners.

Sri Lanka promised to investigate abuse allegations with foreign help in a consensus resolution at the United Nations human rights council last year.

Hmm, Latin egit. Seems legit...

Caveat emptor jud. Kay kon dili, soluta alvus motus ang resulta...

Hindi ka nag-iisa...

Wa kaangay sa eskinadong nawong si Cooper the Brit doggie.

Nasayop lang ang label. Special meat loaf man to. Para man to palaman sama ani...

At practice...

Well, try to trump this one...

Hmm, some sort of canis, er, deus ex machina...

Ni Rowena D. Capistrano/EIM (Banat) | Updated February 10, 2016 - 12:00am


CEBU, Philippines - Usa ka lalaki ang nireklamo human nga ang sud sa de lata nga meatloaf nga iyang napalit gikan sa usa ka mall pulos buhi nga ulod ang sud. Ang maong lalaki nga si Eddie Dinapo nga nagpuyo sa Lumbani Subdivision, Sitio Guadalajara, Brgy. Guadalupe ning Dakbayan sa Sugbo midangop sa Banat News  human kini nakaabli og meat loaf nga pwerteng daghana sa ulod.

Matud pa niini, napalit sa iyang anak sa usa ka mall ang maong de lata duha ka semana na ang nakalabay ug niadtong Lunes sa gabii ila kining giablihan.

Sumala pa ni Dinapo, ang maong pagkaon adunay tatak nga kini gi-manufacture Enero 2016 ug mo-expire Enero 2019 ug wala gayud lumping ang maong lata.

Si Dinapo naglibog kung asa siya makareklamo kay basin aduna pay laing mga de lata nga kadungan niini ang giulod. Si Dr. Eugenia Mercedes Canal, Medical Officer IV, nagkanayon nga ang kagaw nga sagad makita sa mga de latang pagkaon gitawag og Clostridium Botulinum. Sumala pa niya ang maong kagaw makakalibanga sa mga makakaon nga posibleng maka dehydrate sa mga tawo.

Dugang pa ni Canal, angay magmatngon ang mga mamalitay segurohon nga walay mga buslot ug lumping ang mga delata nga paliton.

Suway nga gikuhaan og pamahayag sa Banat News ang Bureau of Food and Drugs sa Department of Health, apan  ang problema gipasa ngadto sa National Meat Inspection Service(NMIS).

Apan ang NMIS miingon nga ang Cebu City Department of Veterinary Medicine and Fisheries (DVMF) ang may hurisdiksyon niini.

Si Dr. Jennifer Laurente, sa DVMF nibutyag nga magpaabot sila og reklamo sa hingtungdan aron ila kining mahatagan og aksyon. (BANAT NEWS)

NILANDING sa tambalanan ang usa ka security guard human naunay sa iyang kaugalingong shotgun niadtong Sabado sa Lingion, Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon.

Nadala og dali sa tambalanan mao si Franciso Loreto, taga Bugo, dakbayan sa Cagayan de Oro, kinsa sekyu sa pribadong farm sa maong dapit.

Giingong gipusil sa biktima ang latagaw nga iro nga gasulod sa farm tungod kay gapangan-on ang gansa sulod sa farm.

Apan sa pagpusil sa biktima, mibanda sa bato ang bala sa shotgun ug mipaingon sa iyang simod, hinungdan sa pagkaigo.

Tungod sa samad nga naangkon, daling gidala ang biktima sa Northern Mindanao Medical Center, dakbayan sa Cagayan de Oro.

Hinoun, anaa na kini sa luwas nga kahimtang apan padayon pa nga giatiman sa mga doktor tungod sa samad nga naangkon. (SVB)


Gipatik sa mantalaang Superbalita Cagayan de Oro Pebrero 09, 2016.

Ni STEPHANIE V. BERGANIO


USA ka giingong bayut ang nagpatabang sa kapolisan human gireklamo ang usa ka lalaki nga milugos kaniya Lunes sa kaadlawon sa Barangay 27, dakbayan sa Cagayan de Oro.

Ang biktima itago na lamang nga Rico, hingkod ang edad, residente sa dapit, samtang ang suspek giilang si Ruel (bansagon gitago).

Sa inisyal nga report gikan sa insider sa Police Station 2 (PS2) sa Cogon, nasuta nga ang biktima nga si Rico ang gikan niadtong tungora sa usa ka balay kalingawan ug didto nakita si Ruel.

Dihang pauli na unta kagahapon sa kaadlawon, kalit lang kining gisignit ni Ruel ug gidala sa usa ka bakanteng luna.

Giingong gihimo kini sa suspetsado tungod kay daw pilit kaayo ang tinan-awan ni Rico kaniya samtang anaa sulod sa balay kalingawan.

Apan dihang nagkita sila, giingong gibira ni Ruel si Rico ug gidala sa kasagbutan nga bahin ug didto giingong gipatuwad ug gipahimuslan.

Wala gikalipay ni Rico ang nahitabo kaniya ug nagpatabang kini sa PS2 nga miresulta sa pagkasikop sa suspetsado.

Ang suspek giingong gidala na sa Maharlika Detention Cell ning panahona kinsa gireklamo og act of lasciviousness.


Gipatik sa mantalaang Superbalita Cagayan de Oro Pebrero 09, 2016.

Ni JEEPY P. COMPIO


WALAY nahimo ang usa ka binabaye human giingong gilugos ug gitulis siya sa usa ka call boy sud sa iyang giabangan nga lawak alas 5:00 sa buntag niadtong Sabado.

Ang insidente nahitabo didto sa Purok Ballener, Bagumbuhay, Barangay Paciano Bangoy, Agdao District, dakbayan sa Davao.

Nagpatala sa Sta. Ana Police Station ang biktimang si Keana (bansagon gitago), 21, call center agent, taga Kidapawan City.

Si Keana duha na ka tuig nga nag-abang sa maong lugar.

Sa pakighinabi sa Sun.Star Davao Superbalita sa biktima, iyang giangkon nga gilugos siya sanglit gipugos siya nga makighilawas sa call boy nga iyang nakaila sa dalang Claro M. Recto ning dakbayan alas 2:00 sa kaadlawon niadtong Sabado.

"Nagkaila mi sa Claveria. Giingnan nako nga wala koy kuwarta, miuban gayud siya ug gipugos ko, gipanamastamasan ko niya," saysay sa biktima.

Giingon sa biktima nga samtang naa pa sila sa sulod sa iyang kuwarto, wala na siya nakalihok ug wa na siya nakapangayo og panabang kay gitionan siya kutsilyo sa lalaki.

"Nakuha gayud niya ang akong pagkababaye ug ang P1,500 nako ug mga gadgets ug cellphone," ingon sa biktima.

Mismong ang amahan sa biktima nga gikan pa sa Kidapawan City ang nagpa-blotter sa maong hitabo sa presinto uno.

Ang maong kaso anaa na sa theft and robbery section sa Sta. Ana Police Station.


Gipatik sa mantalaang Superbalita Davao Pebrero 09, 2016.

Ni Gabriel Bonjoc/EIM (Banat) | Updated February 8, 2016 - 12:00am


CEBU, Philippines - Aniay leksyon alang sa mga batan-on nga mahilig kaayong mag-selfie sa bisan asang dapit nga ilang magustohan.

Natagak gikan sa gisakyang traysikol ang usa ka babaye diha sa Brgy. Biasong, Dakbayan sa Talisay niadtong Sabado sa hapon tungod sa pag-selfie niini.

Ang biktima nga nailhan lang sa pangan nga Irene, 29, dalaga nga taga P. del Rosario, sa Dakbayan sa Sugbu.

Ang mga residente sa nahisgutang lugar nitug-an nga gikan sa usa resort ang grupo sa babaye ug padung na kining mupauli sakay sa motorsiklo.

Matud pa nga si Irene nikuha sa iyang cellphone dayon nag- selfie samtang nagdagan ang iyang gisakyang traysikol.

Apan kalit nga nakaagi sa libaong nga karsada ang traysikol hinungdan sa pagkatagak ni Irene ug napantok ang ulo diha sa konkretong karsada.

Nagkadugo ang biktima ug gitabang sa mga standby ug residente sa lugar ug gidala sa Talisay City District Hospital  ug gibalhin dayon sa Don Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center.  (BANAT NEWS)

AFP 22 hours ago


Beijing (AFP) - China’s foreign exchange reserves have fallen to their lowest level in more than three years, the central bank said Sunday, as Beijing sells dollars to stop the yuan from depreciating further.

The world's largest currency hoard shrank by $99.5 billion in January to some $3.2 trillion, the People’s Bank of China said on its website, the lowest since May 2012.

Worries about China's economy have pushed the yuan to a five-year low. The country saw its first-ever annual decline in foreign exchange reserves last year as Beijing tried to prevent a more drastic devaluation.

The PBoC is selling dollars to buy yuan amid a capital flight spurred by the slowing growth in the world's second largest economy.

But some analysts predict a more drastic weakening of the yuan this year and question China's ability to continue rapidly shedding the reserves.

"While the remaining reserves represent a substantial war chest, the rapid pace of depletion in recent months is simply unsustainable," IHS Global Insight economist Rajiv Biswas told Bloomberg News.

Outflows increased "as expectations mount that the PBoC will eventually be forced to capitulate once its reserves are sufficiently depleted", he added.

George Magnus, economic commentator and associate at Oxford University's China Centre, wrote on Twitter: "China's fx reserves fell another $100bn... clearly this can't go on for long."

The pace of decline in the reserves in January was slower than December, which at some $108 billion was the largest monthly drop on record.

China has also tightened some capital controls to try to curb outflows.

"The smaller decline in the reserves suggests that some capital outflow restrictions imposed in January worked," Shen Jianguang, chief Asia economist at Mizuho Securities, wrote in a note.

The drop in February will be much smaller, he added.

China has set its growth target for this year at between 6.5-7 percent, the top economic planner said Wednesday, an acknowledgement that expansion -- already at its slowest pace in 25 years -- will continue to weaken.

Global investors are closely watching the slowdown in the world's second largest economy, which has created turbulence in world markets.

"Diyutayng mingkay
nga yogabitay."

He he...

Selos ang gituhuang u­­­sa sa mga motibo sa krimen.

Nagduda si Ramos nga ang iyang uyab nga si PO1 Rosalie Cuario dunay gikarelasyon nga kauban nga pulis.

Si PO1 Cuario lakip sa gidugang sa Cebu City alang sa security sa International Eucharistic Congress niadtong miaging simana.

Giingong misamot ang pagduda sa tomboy sang­lit si Rosalie ug ang kaubang pulis ang nagkauban sa dihang gidestino sila sa Cebu City sulod sa duha ka simana.

Sa wala pa mamusil ang tomboy, gisuwayan pa og hangyo ni Sr. Supt. Dennis Agustin, hepe sa Bohol Provincial Police, nga di hilabtan ang mga biktima.

Imbes nga motahan, gipamusil na hinuon ang mga police nga naa sa gawas sa panimay sa mga biktima.

Ang armas nga giga­mit sa pagpamusil perso­nal nga gipanag-iya ni PO1 Cuario ug gihatag kini niya ngadto ni Ramos.

Ipaubos sa administrative investigation si PO1 Cua­rio tungod sa armas nga ma­oy gigamit sa pagpamusil.

Samtang gitak-opan na usab sa kapulisan ang im­bestigasyon human ma­patay usab nila si Ramos, kinsa maoy nipusil patay sa duha ka mga Cuario.


Gipatik sa mantalaang Superbalita Cebu Pebrero 04, 2016.

Ni ARNOLD BUSTAMANTE


HAPON sa Pebrero 2 sa Purok 1, Barangay Ulbujan, Calape, Bohol:

Usa ka tomboy nang-hostage sa balay sa ginikanan sa iyang uyab nga usa ka pulis. Iyang gipamusil ang inahan ug igsuon sa policewoman tungod sa sobrang pangabubho.

Laing paryente sa policewoman nga nagpuyo sa silingang balay gipsusil patay usab sa tomboy. Ang inahan ug paryente patay dihadiha samtang ang u­­yuan gidala sa ospital.

Ang tomboy napatay usab sa mga pulis nga nitubag sa alarma.

Pasado alas 6 sa hapon sa Miyerkules sa Purok 1, Barangay Ulbujan, gisulod ni Maricel Ramos, usa ka tomboy, ang panimay sa pamilyang Cuario aron pangitaon ang iyang uyab si PO1 Rosalie Cuario apan wala ang pulis.

Iyang naabtan si Rosita Cuario, 72, inahan ni Rosalie, ug ang anak ni Rosita nga si Vicente Cuario, 51. Kalit lang nanghasi ang tomboy ug nanion og pusil sa managsuon.

Gipamusil ni Ramos si Rosita ug Vicente, kinsa naigo sa iyang dughan, ug gisunod sa pagpusil si Joel Cuario nga naa sa pikas balay ug nisusi unsay nahitabo.

Patay dihadiha si Rosita ug si Joel samtang si Vicente gidala sa usa ka ospital sa Tagbilaran City.

Napatay sa mga pulis nga nitubag sa alarma si Maricel human nga sila na usab ang gipamusil gamit ang Glock 17 nga armas niini.

The Kirill-Francis meeting was years in the works and marks a major development in the Vatican's long effort to bridge the divisions in Christianity. The Kirill-Francis meeting was years in the works and marks a major development in the Vatican's long effort to bridge the divisions in Christianity.

Francis will fly to Cuba before continuing to Mexico for a six-day tour of the country. Kirill will arrive on Thursday in Havana to start an 11-day tour of South America.

Francis said last November that he had told Kirill: "I'll go wherever you want. You call me and I'll go."

The two are not likely to fully reconcile the churches' differences, as that would require major concessions from both sides. Metropolitan Illarion, foreign policy chief of the Russian Orthodox Church, told reporters Friday that one major disagreement between the Holy See and the Russian Church is over various Orthodox churches in western Ukraine, The Associated Press reported.

The conflict centers on the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, the country's second-largest, which follows eastern church rites but answers to the Holy See. The Russian Orthodox Church has considered western Ukraine its traditional territory and has resented papal influence there.

Francis also angered the Moscow patriarchy and the Kremlin when he came out in support of Kiev during the country's revolution and remained behind Ukraine when Russia annexed Crimea and fomented the war in its eastern regions. More than 9,000 people have been killed in the conflict since April 2014.

Nevertheless, the two religious leaders said in their joint statement on Friday that they were delighted to soon meet, calling it "an important stage in relations between the two churches." Both sides hoped the event will also be "a sign of hope for all people."

Additional reporting by The Associated Press.

That support has allowed the Russian Orthodox Church to grow exceptionally powerful over the past decade.

But that has not stopped Kirill, who has called decisions by western countries to legalize same-sex marriage a "dangerous sign of the apocalypse," from being widely mocked by his subjects.

The Russian public was outraged when he was seen wearing a $30,000 watch in a photograph published in 2012. In a failed attempt to hide the timepiece, the Russian Orthodox Church photoshopped it from his wrist, but overlooked its reflection in the shiny table surface below. Embarrassingly, they restored the original photo after being caught by bloggers.



Patriarch Kirill with and without his fancy wristwatch.
IMAGE: PRESS SERVICE OF THE PATRIARCH

The face-to-face will be the first between a pope and the Russian patriarch since the eastern and western branches of Christianity separated almost 1,000 years ago in what is known as "The Great Schism."

The meeting is set to take place at Havana's airport, according to a joint statement issued Friday by the Russian Orthodox Church and the Holy See.

The Russian Orthodox Church is the largest and most influential in the Orthodox world, and it wields great power and influence in Russia.

Kirill is a staunch supporter of President Vladimir Putin and his conservative policies. He once famously called the Russian head of state a "miracle from God" and he has come out in support of Moscow's military campaign in Syria which he called a "holy war."

Humble Pope Francis to meet scandalous Russian Orthodox Church leader in Cuba
http://mashable.com/
BY CHRISTOPHER MILLER
23 HOURS AGO



Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, right, serves the Christmas Mass in the Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow, Russia, Jan. 7, 2016 ,and Pope Francis prays during an audience at the Vatican, Jan. 30, 2016.
IMAGE: AP PHOTO/IVAN SEKRETAREV/ANDREW MEDICHINI, FILES


One is recognized as a humble leader who cares for the poor and has kissed the feet of peasants.

The other has been plagued by scandal and become an object of ridicule because of his luxurious lifestyle, which includes an apparent penchant for pricey ski vacations in Switzerland.

Both are religious leaders.

Next Friday, Feb. 12, Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill I, the head of the powerful Russian Orthodox Church, will hold a historic meeting in Cuba, church officials from both sides said Friday.