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Adapt to survive

Farrant has recently focused her research on teff, a grass native to Ethiopia whose seed has been used as a stable food in the region for centuries.

She hopes to make it more resilient by activating genes she discovered by studying resurrection plants.

"My main aim all along is to make crops that can improve drought tolerance," Farrant told AFP.

"If we get the money, I would say in 10 to 15 years we've got a product."

Experts warn that drought-tolerant crops are not a one-stop solution to the world's climate problems or even a safeguard against hunger.

"Food security doesn't only depend on climate, it depends on markets and trade, prices and access by households to food," said Jim Verdin, a drought scientist with the US Geological Survey based in Boulder, Colorado.

Still, Farrant - who won a UNESCO Awards for Women in Science in 2012 - believes her work is a step in the right direction.

If she can harness the power of resurrection plants, farmers themselves may have a better chance of survival.

"If it doesn't rain, it doesn't matter, at least your plants won't die," she said. "The moment they get rain, they're ready to go." -- http://www.news24.com/

A life passion

A farmer's daughter, Farrant recalls stumbling across a resurrection plant as a 9-year-old and being amazed at its seemingly immortal properties.

"I wrote in my diary about a plant that had died and came back after the rain," she said.

She returned to the subject professionally in 1994, and has since become the world's leading expert in her field.

Environmentalists fear that more and more of Africa will be reduced to a dust bowl by global warming, with higher temperatures, reduced water supplies and population growth threatening to trigger worsening famines.

Climate change could reduce maize yields across southern Africa by as much as 30% by 2030, according to the UN Environment Programme.

Ahead of the United Nations conference in Paris at the end of November, countries are facing growing pressure to keep global warming below two degrees Celsius, above pre-Industrial Revolution levels by weaning their carbon-hungry societies off fossil fuels.

But, scientists say it is just as important to adapt to the new reality.

"Soil, cropping systems, farming systems - they all must have the capacity to recover from a drastic change in climate," said Rattan Lal, professor of soil science at Ohio State University.

"We should make agriculture part of the solution to our issues... the climate change problem is so huge everything should be on the table."

If successful, Farrant will follow in the venerable footsteps of earlier scientists who have saved crops from devastation by exploiting plants with specific strengths.

In the 1970s, US maize was rescued from southern leaf blight disease by incorporating resistant genes found in other varieties of maize.

SA scientist using 'resurrection plants' to battle drought
2015-11-22 12:31



A Hertzogville farmer stands on his drought-hit farm in the Free State. (Supplied)


Johannesburg - As the race to adapt to climate change quickens, a South African scientist is leading global research into developing crops that mimic the extraordinary survival skills of "resurrection plants".

Jill Farrant, a professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of Cape Town, hopes that unlocking the genetic codes of drought-tolerant plants could help farmers toiling in increasingly hot and dry conditions.

With more than 130 known varieties in the world, resurrection plants are a unique group of flora that can survive extreme water shortages for years.

During a drought, the plant acts like a seed, becoming so dry it appears dead.

But when the skies finally open and the rain pours down, the shrivelled plant bursts "back to life", turning green and robust in just a few hours.

"I want to cater to the subsistence farmer, the person who wants to make enough food to live," Farrant, 55, told AFP.

"Farmers are becoming more and more dispirited, and droughts are killing them."

Perhaps the most well-known resurrection plant is Myrothamnus flabellifolius, which makes antioxidant chemicals to protect it during dry spells and is used in fashion designer Giorgio Armani's cosmetics line.

The resurrection plant Selaginella lepidophylla reviving within 3 hours after the addition of water. --Wiki

PETER SCOTT
School of Biological Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9QG, UK


Abstract

Most higher plants possess a phase in their life cycle in which tissues can survive desiccation. However, this is restricted to specialized tissues such as seeds and pollen. Resurrection plants are remarkable in that they can tolerate almost complete water loss in their vegetative tissues. The desiccated plant can remain alive in the dried state for several years. However, upon watering the plants rehydrate and are fully functional within 48 h. Underpinning this amazing ability is the capacity to accumulate large amounts of sucrose in the tissues. This sugar has the property of stabilizing enzymes and cellular structures in the absence of water. The sources of carbon that fuel sucrose synthesis are not known, but temporary carbohydrate stores and photosynthesis are the most likely candidates. On rewatering, the sucrose is metabolized rapidly as the tissues rehydrate. Increased expression of a number of genes in response to drought stress have been noted. A number of these are associated with metabolic pathways linked with primary carbohydrate metabolism. However, some genes related to LEA (Late Embryogenic Abundant) proteins have been isolated which suggests they too may play a role in maintaining tissue integrity during desiccation. How these mechanisms are integrated to enable resurrection plants to survive desiccation is discussed. Copyright 2000 Annals of Botany

Company Ann Bot (2000) 85 (2): 159-166.
doi: 10.1006/anbo.1999.1006


Full text

http://uenf.br/cbb/lbt/files/2014/09/Artigo-dorm%C3%AAncia-2-atualizado-em-18-Nov-09.pdf

Photo: Facebook/Siddharth Karwal

PHOTO: FACEBOOK/CHINTAN UPADHYAY

"Two persons were taken to police station for questioning and were later released in connection with the matter.

Activists raised objection and demanded action against the artist and organisers but no FIR was lodged," Mahendra Gupta, SHO of Bajaj Nagar police station, told PTI.

"Message of the art work was clear that we should protect cows from plastic waste but some people objected and called police and two of our artists who argued with police were picked up," the event's organiser Vidhya Prakash said.

The installation was later pulled out of where it was stored and worshipped.

After the issue, we removed that installation which was made by a local artist Siddharth Karwal. It was the opening day of the five-day art summit, he said.

"Cow is highly respected and the way they presented their art cannot be tolerated therefore we brought the matter to the notice of police," Suraj Soni, the activist who raised objection, said.

Last year also, the summit witnessed a controversy when an artist displayed his creation which was about Lord Ganesha on the toilet pot. -- PTI

Plastic cow art taken down, artists dragged to police, 'Bovine Divine' worshipped
http://www.catchnews.com/jaipur-news
22 November 2015



Photo: Facebook/Chintan Upadhyay

   
The use of a dummy cow as a mid-air art installation to convey the message of saving the animal from eating plastic waste at a summit here created a controversy today with activists raising objection to it and forcing the organisers to pull it down.

The dummy made of plastic and hooked to a balloon was installed in the open area of the Jawahar Kala Kendra (JKK), a centre of cultural and artistic activities, and was floating at a height of around 200 feet which caught attention of activists who objected and called the police.

After the police picked up two persons for interrogation from the place, the organisers removed the dummy to pacify the activists.

Merry Christmas, Miss Lolla and all TB natives and tourists!
--From Botoy a.k.a. Santak Lawos...

Na hala, mohatag na lang ko ni Aylandil og little gift, baratohon ra gud...

Botoy at home says, "Malipajong Pasko kaninjong tanan!"

Miri Krismas kanatong hurot!

It echoes the famous Earthrise photo taken by the Apollo 8 astronauts on the first manned mission to orbit the moon in 1968. The astronauts -- Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot Jim Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders -- entered lunar orbit on Dec. 24, Christmas Eve, and in a live TV broadcast that night, sent back pictures of Earth and the moon as they had never been seen before.



Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon, entered lunar orbit on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, 1968, and in a live broadcast from lunar orbit, showed pictures of the Earth and moon as seen from their spacecraft. NASA


© 2015 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

CBS NEWS December 23, 2015, 5:00 AM
Breathtaking Earthrise image taken from far side of the moon


NASA has released a stunning new view of the Earth taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), an unmanned spacecraft that's been circling, analyzing and photographing the moon since 2009. The image of Earth rising over the horizon, with the lunar surface in the foreground and the blackness of space behind, was taken Oct. 12 from a distance of about 83 miles above the Compton crater on the far side of the moon.

According to NASA, the picture is actually a composite of images snapped by two cameras while the orbiter whipped by at a speed of 3,480 miles per hour.

"Since the spacecraft, Earth, and moon are all in motion, we had to do some special processing to create an image that represents the view of the Earth and moon at one particular time," NASA explained on its website.

This Earthrise image, taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) on Oct. 12, 2015, shows the surface of the moon in the foreground. NASA/GODDARD/ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY

Since it took less time to get the benefits of REM sleep, humans were able to get by with less sleep over all than other primates. They gained a few extra waking hours each day, which they might have used to make new tools or share stories.

Dr. Patrick J. McNamara, a neurologist at Boston University School of Medicine, found the new study compelling. “We as a species have found a way to get more out of a shorter sleep span than other species,” he said.

But he and other scientists also said that the study raises many puzzling questions.

Dr. Robert A. Barton, an evolutionary biologist at Durham University in the United Kingdom, noted that mouse lemurs are so tiny that they can sleep inside tree cavities. They ought to be able to enjoy short, efficient sleep as we do, but instead they are marathon dozers.

While our REM sleep may be unusual among primates, it is not so special among mammals. “The platypus is the champion,” said Dr. Jerome M. Siegel, a sleep researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles. That creature spends half of its sleep in REM.

Dr. Samson replied that the evolution of sleep may be driven by different factors in different groups of species. Figuring out what those factors are will take many more sleepless nights of research.

“These first studies are really exciting indicators that something really profound is going on here,” he said, “but I think the jury’s still out.”

“It’s like economy class on a plane,” said Dr. Samson. Monkeys, he believes, have to rest longer to get the benefits of REM sleep.

The fossil record suggests that 20 million years ago, the ancestors of humans and other apes changed their sleeping habits because they became too big for branches. Today, no primate that weighs over 60 pounds sleeps on a branch. Instead, chimpanzees, bonobos and their cousins build sleeping platforms each night from sticks and other materials.

Dr. Samson and his colleagues have found that apes take great care in choosing trees to sleep in and the materials to build their platforms. The reason, he suspects, is that apes aim to get the best night’s rest they can.

Dr. Samson and the primatologist Robert W. Shumaker found that orangutans that got to make platforms of foam and other comfortable materials scored better on cognition tests the following day than apes that slept on straw.

Early human ancestors probably continued to sleep in trees until about two million years ago, Dr. Samson said. By 1.8 million years ago, new hominins like Homo erectus had left the trees. “I think we can be safe in saying Homo erectus slept on the ground,” Dr. Samson said.

Early humans probably slept around fires in large groups, able to ward off predators. The result, said Dr. Samson and Dr. Nunn, was the chance to get an even better night’s rest. Humans were able to fall more soundly asleep and to experience deeper bouts of REM sleep.

The one big exception: humans. We sleep a lot less than one would predict based on the patterns seen in other primates.

From time to time while sleeping, we slip into REM sleep and dream. All told, we spend about 22 percent of sleep in REM, the highest ratio of REM to total sleep in any primate, the researchers reported.

Dr. Samson and Dr. Nunn have an explanation for how humans ended up sleeping so little, and so often in REM.

Over tens of millions of years, they assert, changes in our ancestors’ ecology drove the evolution of new sleeping patterns. Humans increasingly have been able to achieve a good night’s sleep.

A number of studies suggest that REM sleep benefits the brain. Some scientists argue that it sweeps out molecular debris, and others say it consolidates new memories into lasting impressions.

But it was not easy for our monkey-like ancestors to reach REM sleep. They slept on branches, and their nights were anything but easy. As monkeys try to sleep today, they get roused by winds, tree snakes and the jostling of their fellow primates.

“I became nocturnal for about seven months,” Dr. Samson said. “It takes someone who wants to get their Ph.D. to be motivated enough to do that.”

In the new study. Dr. Samson and Dr. Nunn combined that information with studies of 19 other primate species. The researchers found wide variations in how long the animals slept. Mouse lemurs doze for seventeen hours a day, for example, while humans sleep just seven hours or so a day â€" “the least of any primate on the planet,” said Dr. Samson.

The scientists looked for factors that could explain the differences. Compared with big mammals, for example, smaller species tend to sleep more during the day and in short bouts, perhaps because they need to eat many times a day.

Dr. Samson and Dr. Nunn found that the time each primate species spends asleep generally corresponded to its physical size, along with other factors, such as the average number of primates in a group.



A Chacma Baboon. The researchers found that the time each primate species spends asleep generally corresponded to its physical size. Credit Theo Allofs/Minden Picture

http://www.nytimes.com/
Carl Zimmer
MATTER DEC. 17, 2015


A golden snub-nosed monkey. The peculiar sleeping patterns of humans may have contributed to the power of our minds, a study says. Credit Cyril Ruoso/Minden Pictures


Over the past few million years, the ancestors of modern humans became dramatically different from other primates. Our forebears began walking upright, and they lost much of their body hair; they gained precision-grip fingers and developed gigantic brains.

But early humans also may have evolved a less obvious but equally important advantage: a peculiar sleep pattern. “It’s really weird, compared to other primates,” said Dr. David R. Samson, a senior research scientist at Duke University.

In the journal Evolutionary Anthropology, Dr. Samson and Dr. Charles L. Nunn, an evolutionary biologist at Duke, reported that human sleep is exceptionally short and deep, a pattern that may have helped give rise to our powerful minds.

Until recently, scientists knew very little about how primates sleep. To document orangutan slumber, for example, Dr. Samson once rigged up infrared cameras at the Indianapolis Zoo and stayed up each night to watch the apes nod off.

By observing their movements, he tracked when the orangutans fell in and out of REM sleep, in which humans experience dreams.

The real wonderful dwarf Cavendish banana...

Finally, to understand how the historic Armenian Genocide is representative of the modern day plight of Christians under Islam, one need only read the following words written in 1918 by President Theodore Rooseveltâ€"but read “Armenian” as “Christian” and “Turkish” as  “Islamic”:

the Armenian [Christian] massacre was the greatest crime of the war, and the failure to act against Turkey [the Islamic world] is to condone it… the failure to deal radically with the Turkish [Islamic] horror means that all talk of guaranteeing the future peace of the world is mischievous nonsense.

Indeed, if we “fail to deal radically” with the “horror” currently being visited upon millions of Christians around the Islamic worldâ€"which in some areas has reached genocidal proportionsâ€"we “condone it” and had better cease talking “mischievous nonsense” of a utopian world of peace and tolerance.

Put differently, silence is always the ally of those who would commit genocide.  In 1915, Adolf Hitler rationalized his genocidal plans, which he implemented some three decades later, when he rhetorically asked: “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”

And who speaks today of the annihilation of Christians under Islam?


http://www.raymondibrahim.com/2013/04/24/the-forgotten-genocide-why-it-matters-today/

Outside of Turkey, what is happening to the Christians of today from one end of the Muslim world to the other is a reflection of what happened to the Armenian Christians of yesterday.   We can learn about the past by looking at the present.  From Indonesia in the east to Morocco in the west, from Central Asia in the north, to sub-Sahara Africaâ€"that is, throughout the entire Islamic worldâ€"Muslims are, to varying degrees, persecuting, killing, raping, enslaving, torturing and dislocating Christians.  See my new book, Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians for a comprehensive account of one of the greatestâ€"yet, like the Armenian Genocide, little knownâ€"atrocities of our times.

Here is one relevant example to help appreciate the patterns and parallels: in Muslim-majority northern Nigeria, Muslims, led by the Islamic organization, Boko Haram (“Western Education is Forbidden”) are waging a bloody jihad on the Christian minorities in their midst.  These two groupsâ€"black Nigerian Muslims and black Nigerian Christiansâ€"are identical in all ways except, of course, for being Muslims and Christians.  And what is Boko Haram’s objective in all this carnage?  To cleanse northern Nigeria of all Christiansâ€"a goal rather reminiscent of Ottoman policies of cleansing Turkey of all Christians, whether Armenian, Assyrian, or Greek.

How does one explain this similar pattern of Christian persecutionâ€"this desire to be cleansed of Christiansâ€"in lands so different from one another as Nigeria and Turkey, lands which share neither race, language, nor culture, which share only Islam?  Meanwhile, the modern Islamic world’s response to the persecution of Christians is identical to Turkey’s response to the Armenian Genocide: Denial.

If Christians are thus being singled out todayâ€"in our modern, globalized, “humanitarian” ageâ€"are we to suppose that they weren’t singled out a century ago by Turks?

Similarly, often forgotten is the fact that non-Armenians under Turkish hegemony, Assyrians and Greeks for example, were also targeted for cleansing.   The only thing that distinguished  Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks from Turks was that they were all Christian.  As one Armenian studies professor asks, “If it [the Armenian Genocide] was a feud between Turks and Armenians, what explains the genocide carried out by Turkey against the Christian Assyrians at the same time?”

Today, as Turkey continues moving back to reclaiming its Islamic heritage, so too has Christian persecution returned.  If Turks taunted their crucified Armenian victims by saying things like “Now let your Christ come and help you,” just last January, an 85-year-old Christian Armenian woman was repeatedly stabbed to death in her apartment, and a crucifix carved onto her naked corpse.   Another elderly Armenian woman was punched in the head and, after collapsing to the floor, repeatedly kicked by a masked man.   According to the report, “the attack marks the fifth in the past two months against elderly Armenian women,” one of whom lost an eye.  Elsewhere, pastors of church congregations with as little as 20 people are targeted for killing and spat upon in the streets.  A 12-year-old Christian boy was beaten by his teacher and harassed by students for wearing a cross around his neck, and three Christians were “satanically tortured” before having their throats slit for publishing Bibles.

It is the same today throughout the Muslim world, wherever there is war: after the U.S. toppled Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, the nation’s Christian minority were first to be targeted for systematic persecution resulting in more than half of Iraq’s indigenous Christian population fleeing their homeland.  Now that war has come to Syriaâ€"with the U.S. supporting the jihadis and terroristsâ€"the Christians there are on the run for their lives.

There is no denying that religionâ€"or in this context, the age-old specter of Muslim persecution of Christian minoritiesâ€"was fundamental to the Armenian Genocide.  Even the most cited factor, ethnic identity conflict, while legitimate, must be understood in light of the fact that, historically, religionâ€"creedâ€"accounted more for a person’s identity than language or heritage.   This is daily demonstrated throughout the Islamic world today, where Muslim governments and Muslim mobs persecute Christian minoritiesâ€"minorities who share the same ethnicity, language, and culture, who are indistinguishable from the majority, except, of course, for being non-Muslims.

What do Americans know of the Armenian Genocide?  To be sure, some American high school textbooks acknowledge it.  However, one of the primary causes for itâ€"perhaps the fundamental causeâ€"is completely unacknowledged: religion.  The genocide is always articulated through a singularly secular paradigm, one that deems valid only those factors that are intelligible from a modern, secular, Western point of view, such as identity politics, nationalism, and territorial disputes. As can be imagined, such an approach does little more than project Western perspectives onto vastly different civilizations of different eras, thus anachronizing history.

War, of course, is another factor that clouds the true face of the Armenian genocide.  Because these atrocities occurred during WWI, so the argument goes, they are ultimately a reflection of just thatâ€"war, in all its chaos and destruction, and nothing more.  Yet Winston Churchill, who described the massacres as an “administrative holocaust,” correctly observed that “The opportunity [WWI] presented itself for clearing Turkish soil of a Christian race.”  Even Adolf Hitler had pointed out that “Turkey is taking advantage of the war in order to thoroughly liquidate its internal foes, i.e., the indigenous Christians, without being thereby disturbed by foreign intervention.”

Indeed, evidence has been overwhelming.  U.S. Senate Resolution 359 from 1920 heard testimony that included evidence of “[m]utilation, violation, torture, and death [which] have left their haunting memories in a hundred beautiful Armenian valleys, and the traveler in that region is seldom free from the evidence of this most colossal crime of all the ages.”  In her memoir, Ravished Armenia, Aurora Mardiganian described being raped and thrown into a harem (which agrees with Islam’s rules of war).  Unlike thousands of other Armenian girls who were discarded after being defiled, she managed to escape. In the city of Malatia, she saw 16 Christian girls crucified: “Each girl had been nailed alive upon her cross, spikes through her feet and hands, only their hair blown by the wind, covered their bodies.”  Such scenes were portrayed in the 1919 documentary film Auction of Souls, some of which is based on Mardiganian's memoirs.

The Forgotten Genocide: Why It Matters Today
BY RAYMOND IBRAHIM
APRIL 24, 2013


April 24 marks the “Great Crime,” that is, the Armenian genocide that took place under Turkey’s Islamic Ottoman Empire, during and after WWI.  Out of an approximate population of two million, some 1.5 million Armenians died. If early 20th century Turkey had the apparatuses and technology to execute in massâ€"such as 1940s Germany’s gas chambersâ€"the entire Armenian population may well have been annihilated.  Most objective American historians who have studied the question unequivocally agree that it was a deliberate, calculated genocide:

More than one million Armenians perished as the result of execution, starvation, disease, the harsh environment, and physical abuse.  A people who lived in eastern Turkey for nearly 3,000 years [more than double the amount of time the invading Islamic Turks had occupied Anatolia, now known as “Turkey”] lost its homeland and was profoundly decimated in the first large-scale genocide of the twentieth century.  At the beginning of 1915 there were some two million Armenians within Turkey; today there are fewer than 60,000….  Despite the vast amount of evidence that points to the historical reality of the Armenian Genocide, eyewitness accounts, official archives, photographic evidence, the reports of diplomats, and the testimony of survivors, denial of the Armenian Genocide by successive regimes in Turkey has gone on from 1915 to the present.

In fact, the researchers found that over the course of a 40-year career, having desirable facial features could lead to an income advantage of between $11,000 and $26,000.

You can choose a LinkedIn photo that plays up desirable facial traits.

This study adds to a growing body of research suggesting that a person's physical appearance plays a big role in their professional success. For example, across industries, those who are pretty, thin, and tall earn higher salaries than average.

Unfortunately, just because someone's face looks trustworthy, dominant, or attractive â€" or just because they're tall and thin â€" doesn't mean they'll do a good job as an employee or a leader.

The researchers note that some appearance-based judgments are indeed accurate â€" for example, people are pretty good at determining how extroverted someone is based on looks alone. But others may be entirely off-base, so it's generally unwise to make decisions by relying on these evaluations.

On the other hand, the researchers say that people can choose LinkedIn photos that play up certain desirable features, depending on the position they're applying for. "Indeed," they write, "some individuals can, and will, use knowledge of appearance-driven biases to their strategic advantage in the workplace."

Bottom line: It's unfair for employers to judge your worth based on what you look like. But it happens more often than not, so try to use those biases to your advantage.

For the current study, cited by the Association for Psychological Science, researchers led by Laura Fruhen at the University of Western Australia recruited about 1,500 people to look at 100 photos of male and female faces.

Participants were asked to indicate how much they would pay the person in the photograph for the position of either retail manager or head of retail operations â€" the latter is a more senior position. For the position of retail manager, the pay range was about $36,000 to $43,655 per year; for that of head of retail operations, the range was about $125,000 to $134,000.

In an earlier experiment, another group of raters had evaluated the photos for attractiveness, dominance, and trustworthiness.

When the researchers analyzed all the findings, they saw that attractiveness mattered more for candidates for the retail manager position. Specifically, attractive candidates were awarded an additional $362.

Among candidates for the head of retail operations job, trustworthiness and dominance mattered more. Trustworthy-looking candidates were awarded about $419 more, while dominant-looking candidates received about $355 more.

In general, studies have found that people who look highly dominant tend to look less trustworthy. But the researchers told Business Insider that these traits independently predicted pay premiums. In other words, if you look highly dominant, you could get paid more, and if you look highly trustworthy, you could get paid more, too.

The biggest premium was given to male candidates who looked trustworthy. They received about $459 more.

Business Insider
By Shana Lebowitz
6 hours ago


Your facial structure isn't something you can control, but employers may subconsciously use it to gauge your abilities.

When you first interview for a job or head into a salary negotiation, there's a lot that's under your control.

You can easily impress the person on the other side of the table by talking about your past achievements, ambitions for the future, and ability to lead a team to greatness.

Unfortunately, that person may be subconsciously relying on your facial structure â€" something you have little to no say over â€" for clues as to how much money you deserve.

According to new research, those whose faces convey the impression of trustworthiness and dominance may walk away with a higher salary.

Previous research has found that dominance is associated with "masculine" features, like a squared face, strong jawline, pronounced eyebrows, and thin eyes and lips. Trustworthiness is associated with "feminine" features like a round face, big eyes, small eyebrows, and full lips.

Members of the Philippine national police special forces take cover as they move toward enemy positions during a fire fight with Muslim rebels in Zamboanga City on September 12, 2013 (AFP Photo/Ted Aljibe)

Basilan, an impoverished island of about 400,000 people, has long been a stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf, a group formed in the 1990s with the help of Al-Qaeda founder Osama Bin Laden.

The Abu Sayyaf is infamous for kidnapping people, including foreigners and demanding huge ransoms for their release.

The group has also been blamed for the worst terror attacks in the country, including the firebombing of a ferry off Manila Bay in 2004 that killed over 100 people.

Last year, Abu Sayyaf leaders pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, which controls vast swathes of Syria and Iraq.

The battle involved as many as 150 members of the Abu Sayyaf group, according to the military, which also reported militant deaths that could not be verified.

A total of 26 Abu Sayyaf fighters were slain, Tan said but the military was unable to recover their bodies.

"The populace of the area, they confirmed it. They were buried at once according to Muslim tradition. Others were seen by our troops, being shot, falling and not getting up," he told AFP.

The rest of the Abu Sayyaf members fled in different directions before dawn on Sunday, he said.

Sixteen Abu Sayyaf fighters were also wounded along with 14 soldiers before the IED blast on Sunday, Tan added.

Pursuit operations were continuing against the remnants of the Abu Sayyaf group and its leaders in Basilan, he said.

The captured camp, measuring 30,000 square metres (323,000 feet) could accomodate about 250 people with 28 structures including fortified bunkers, the military said.

AFP
8 hours ago


Members of the Philippine national police special forces take cover as they move toward enemy positions during a fire fight with Muslim rebels in Zamboanga City on September 12, 2013 (AFP Photo/Ted Aljibe)

A week-long assault by Philippine troops ended with the capture of a Muslim extremist camp and the deaths of 26 militants and three soldiers, a military spokesman said on Sunday.

Soldiers captured the Abu Sayyaf camp in a forested area on the southern island of Basilan but an improvised explosive device left behind by the rebels, injured 12 soldiers on Sunday, said Major Filemon Tan.

"After we captured the camp, they were clearing the bunkers when the IED exploded," he told AFP.

About 300 soldiers, backed by artillery and attack helicopters, launched the attack on the Abu Sayyaf group on strife-torn Basilan about 885 kilometres (550 miles) from Manila on Monday, starting days of intense combat.

”To Martel’s contemporaries, however, it was hardly so significant. At the time, the entire region was wracked with similar battles, usually between Christian princes as the Carolingians fought to establish control over Aquitaine. There had been many battles fought between Muslims and Christians in southern France, some won by each side.

One chronicler even blamed the Christian Duke of Aquitaine, Eudo, for causing the battle by seeking to ally with the Muslims north of the Pyrenees in Septimania who themselves were seeking independence from the Arab rulers in Spain. Many of the battles fought by Charles Martel were as much aimed at troublesome Christian princes as they were at Muslim interlopers who were relatively few in number. Most contemporary historians were unimpressed by the Islamic threat to southern France and the Mediterranean, seeing them as pagan barbarians and a nuisance but not an existential threat.

There were a number of other factors which led to the halting of the Muslim advance into Western Europe. While they fought in the name of religion, the Muslims at Tours were chiefly concerned with easily acquired plunder. The Franks proved too much of a nut to crack, especially considering there were more easily acquired riches elsewhere. The climate of central France may have been uncongenial to the Arab and Berber invaders who were also reaching the limits of their manpower. Meanwhile, the invasion of Spain was not even complete as resentful Visigothic princes in the northwest remained resistant to the Islamic invaders.

While a Muslim victory at Tours would likely have had some significance and possibly led to a longer period of Islamic forays into southern France, it was only one of many battles fought in the region during this time period. In fact, it’s likely the Muslim tide would’ve died off regardless, absent larger historical divergences. -- http://listverse.com/

Photo credit: Charles de Steuben


It’s a romantic and popular image. The Islamic expansion had roared out of Arabia, conquering the Middle East, Persia, North Africa, and Spain. The Muslim cavalry stood ready to expand north into France and snuff out Western civilization with endless jihad. Only when Emir ‘Abdarrahman sent an army to assault the city of Tours, his jihadis were decisively defeated by Charles Martel’s Frankish forces at Poitiers. Historian Edward Gibbon called Martel the savior of Christendom, claiming that without him, “The interpretation of the Koran would now be taught in the schools of Oxford, and her pulpits might demonstrate to a circumcised people the sanctity and truth of the revelation of Mahomet.

Tagam. Malagmit after 10 years nahurot nag gasto ang kinikik... 

There are two basic types of string theories: those with closed string loops that can break into open strings, shown above, and those with closed string loops that can't break into open strings, shown below





http://superstringtheory.com/

Ni HERTY B. LOPEZ


PATAY ang usa ka mag-uuma human kini gitigbas ug gipusil sa iyang silingang mag-uuma Biyernes sa buntag sa dakbayan sa Danao, amihanang bahin sa Sugbo.

Gamit ang pistola ug sundang, patay diha-diha si Santos Castro, 46, minyo ug residente sa Taboc, Barangay Camaligbato syudad sa Danao, pasado alas 5:00 sa buntag sa maong adlaw.

Sa imbestigasyon sa Danao City Police, giingon nga nagkalalis si Castro ug ang silingan niini nga mag-uuma nga si Francisco Landero, 51 human gikaon sa baka ni Landero ang pananom nga mais ni Castro.

Nagkalalis ang duha ug gipusil ni Landero si Castro sa dughan nga bahin ingon man gitigbas usab kini niya sa liog resulta sa kamatayon niini.

Nitahan lang hinuon sa kapulisan si Landero ug anaa kini karon natanggong sa Danao City Police Station.

Nakuha usab ang gigamit pagpatay lakip ang pistola ug ang sundang diin gitahan kini ni Landero.

Padayon ang imbes­tigasyon sa kapulisan kabahin sa maong insidente sa mas lawom pa nga rason ingon man motibo sa pagpatay sa suspek sa biktima.

Ang Danao giila nga dapit daghang tiggama og armas ug pipila nini gihimong nang legal.

Usa ang Danao nga dunay daghang kaso sa pagpamusil tungod sa mga armas nga pada­yong tinagoan.


Gipatik sa mantalaang Superbalita Cebu Disyembre 20, 2015.

MIDSAYAP, NORTH COTABATO -- Patay ang duha ka binuhing baboy human gilabay og granada ang piggery sa negusyante, alas 3:30 sa kaadlawon kagahapon.

Gibutyag ni Cotabato Provincial Police Office director Senior Superintendent Alexander Tagum nga duha ka wala mailhing tawo ang miitsa'g granada sa piggery nga gipanag-iyahan ni Rolando Manzanarez.

Mga suspetsado dali sab nga misibat human malabay ang granada sakay sa usa ka motorsiklo paingon sa hilit nga dapit sa Midsayap.

Duha ka baboy ang namatay gumikan human mibusikad ang granada.

Narekober sa kapulisan sulod sa piggery ang mga tipaka sa granada nga gisusi sa mga ginsakpan sa Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team sa Philippine Army.

Nasayran nga una mibusikad ang granada, daghang mga molupyo sa palibot sa piggery nagreklamo gumikan sa kabaho niini.

Sa pagsuwat ning balita, kapulisan sa Midsayap Municipal Police Station nga gipangulohan ni Superintendent Gilbert Tuzon padayon nga nag-imbestiga kalabutan sa hitabo. (EEF)


Gipatik sa mantalaang Superbalita Davao Disyembre 18, 2015.

Agoi, kon naay unggoy nga nag-inunggoy, naa puy Insik nga nag-Ininsik.

That is, Aylandil would say, "Pak siw!", este, "Piaw si!"

Lo declined to confirm the arms sales but said the Taiwanese military has "presented shopping lists" to the US, including two Perry-class frigates, "which have been discussed by the US Congress".

China's foreign ministry warned the US on Tuesday that arms sales to Taiwan would damage Sino-US relations.

"China strongly urges the US side to seriously realise the high sensitivity and severe harmfulness of arms sales to Taiwan, live up to its commitments and stop arms sales to Taiwan," said foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei at a briefing.

Relations between Beijing and Taipei have warmed under current Taiwanese president Ma Ying-jeou of the Kuomintang party. But China still sees Taiwan as a breakaway territory and refuses to renounce the use of force should it declare formal independence.

China and Taiwan split at the end of a civil war in 1949.

The United States recognises China rather than Taiwan, but remains a main ally and leading arms supplier to the island, providing a source of continued tension with Beijing.

Taiwan will elect a new president in January, with the candidate of the pro-independence opposition Democratic Progressive Party, Tsai Ing-wen, tipped to win.

She has pledged to maintain the status quo if she wins but some analysts have questioned whether cross-strait peace could be maintained.

AFP
2 hours ago


China told Taiwan on Wednesday not to jeopardise cross-strait relations after a report that Washington expects to agree the sale of two warships to the island.

Beijing said it "firmly opposed" all foreign arms sales to its neighbour, which it regards as part of its territory awaiting reunification -- by force if necessary.

Taipei said the planned arms sales covered "defensive weapons" and would not threaten the mainland.

The White House is set to authorise the sale of two guided-missile frigates to Taiwan as early as this week, Reuters said, citing US congressional sources.

In a joint statement, the Chinese Communist Party's Taiwan Affairs Office and the State Council, or cabinet, said Beijing "firmly opposes sales of weapons, military hardware or technology to Taiwan by any country in any form or under any pretext".

"We hope Taiwan cherishes the hard-earned good situation for the peaceful development of bilateral relations and do more to help improve and develop ties between the two sides," the statement added.

Taiwan's defence ministry spokesman David Lo said Beijing had nothing to worry about.

"We've noticed the reactions from mainland authorities regarding the planned arms sales," he said.

"It was unnecessary as they are all defensive weapons which are aimed for increasing our self-defence capabilities and helping maintain peace in the Taiwan Strait and won't threaten the mainland."

Lo added: "Nor have we the intention of engaging in an arms race with the mainland."

He he, now pa ko nga gihimong doy-ay ang lat-bi. But then again, knowing mt katagay Bugsay...

Hmm, asa nilang duha ang imong gikawilihan nga nagbaton sa mga mata ni Angelita?

Associated Press
By JENNIFER KAY
19 hours ago


MIAMI (AP) â€" A 13-year-old boy has been charged with stabbing a woman visiting the Florida nudist resort where he lives, authorities said Tuesday.

The boy has been charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and has been taken to a juvenile detention center, Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Therese Barbera said in a news release.

It's unknown why the boy stabbed the 18-year-old woman wounded Sunday at the Sunsport Gardens Naturist Resort in Loxahatchee.

She arrived at the resort about 60 miles north of Miami by bicycle Saturday, expecting to find a campground, said the resort's general manager, Morley Schloss. Authorities have not released her name.

"I know from talking to the young woman there was no provocation," Schloss said.

The boy is among other children who live with their families at the resort, which runs a children's camp in the summer. He will not be permitted to return, though his parents are welcome to stay, Schloss said.

"We can't have someone here who has that kind of temper and inclination," Schloss said.

He added, "He obviously is troubled."

The woman was not seriously injured and has continued her travels "in good spirits" to Miami, he said.

"I'm so impressed with her," Schloss said. "The thing she seems most concerned about is the welfare of the young person that stabbed her and hoping he gets the care he needs."

He he...

Bwahaha!

Abaw gid, binuangon man ini nga balita haw...

IGO na lamang sa pagpatambal ang biktima human kini gitabangan og layog tulo ka mga gituohang boang sa dalan Corrales, dakbayan sa Cagayan de Oro.

Nilanding sa Northern Mindanao Medical Center (NMMC) ning dakbayan si Nelson Claros, 49, minyo, taga Damilag, Manolo Fortich Bukidnon.

Subay sa impormasiyon gikan sa NMMC, gibutyag sa usa ka Charmaine kinsa maoy nagdala sa biktima nga kalit lamang kining gitabangan sa mga boang samtang anaa sa dapit.

Wala na makalikay ang biktima gumikan kay tulo man ka mga wala sa insaktong panghunahuna ang mibuhat sa ingon.

Nakaangkon ang biktima og samad sa ulo ug agtang gumikan sa paghapak niini sa tulo ginamit ang bato.

Sa pagsulat niini nga balita ang biktima an gang pabilin pa nga nagpaalim sa mga naangkong samad sulod sa NMMC. (KCS)


Gipatik sa mantalaang Superbalita Cagayan de Oro Disyembre 15, 2015.

Ni KRIS C. SIALANA


USA ka tindero sa luy-ahan ang gidagit sa pito ka mga lalaki niadtong milabay nga adlaw mga alas 8:36 sa gabii sa Vegetable landing area, West Bound Terminal, Bulua sa dakbayan sa Cagayan de Oro.

Naila ang biktima nga mao si Ryan Mahid (bansagon gipugngan), 19, lumad nga taga Dilabayan, Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte.

Sa impormasiyon gikan sa Police Station 7 (PS7) sa Bulua nasayran nga gipick-up ang biktima sa terminal ug pugsanong gipasakay sa itom nga Toyota Fortuner Wagon ug nagpahaguros sa pagpadagan paingon sa siyudad sa Iligan nga direksiyon.

Apan nasikop ang mga suspetsado human nga nakigkoordinar ang kapolisan sa nahisgutang dapit ug na flash alarm ang maong insidente.

Si Senior Police Officer 3 Dominador Datahan sa PS7 mibutyag nga padayon pa ang giimbestigahan sa maong insidente ilabi na ang motibo sa maong pagsulay sa pagpangidnap gumikan kay kung may kalabotan sa kwarta usa lang man kini ka tindero diha sa merkado.

“Mao ka nay usa sa atong galantawon nganong misangko sa pagpangidnap nga ang iyang trabaho sumala sa gikabutyag nga tindero man siya sa luy-ahan,” saysay ni Datahan.

Gidugang pa nga kalit lamang nga giduolan ang maong biktima sa wala maila nga suspetsado diin ang duha niini maoy nigunit sa kamot samtang ang usa ang miti-on sa wala masutang klase sa armas.

Pugsanon nga gipasakay ang biktima sa nakaparada nga sakyanan diin atoa ang laing mga suspetsado apan swerteng nasikop kini diha sa Libertad highway samtang nagpahigayon ang kapolisan og checkpoint kalabot na usab sa maong insidente.

Nagkadugo ang biktima dihang nakuha tungod kay gihapak kini og gahi nga butang sa mga suspetsado.
Naluwas ang maong biktima ug narekober pa gikan sa posisyon sa mga suspek ang kalibre .45 ug 380 nga armas.

Gipasaka na ang kasong kidnapping kalabot na sa mga suspetsado samtang padayon pa nga gisuta ang motibo sa maong pagpangidnap.


Gipatik sa mantalaang Superbalita Cagayan de Oro Disyembre 16, 2015.

(Banat) | Updated December 15, 2015 - 12:00am


CEBU, Philippines - Nagbuy-od na sa daplin sa karsada  ang usa ka person with disability (PWD) nga gidudahang gipuspusan og kahoy sa ulo diha sa Sitio Liptong, Barangay Nug-as Lungsod sa Alcoy sa nakalabay nga buntag.

Ang biktima giila nga si Rene Vivar, 35, nagpuyo sa Barangay Cabutongan sa Lungsod sa Boljoon.

Matud pa ni Police Officer 2 Erland Salonoy, desk officer sa Alcoy Police nga nahinabi sa Banat News, aduna silay nakuha nga upat ka tiil nga bulos sa kawayan diha sa crime scene nga gituohan nilang maoy gigamit sa pagbunal sa biktima.

Sa imbestigasyon sa Alcoy Police nasayran nga katapusang nakita nga buhi ang biktima alas- 8 sa nakalabay nga gabii diha sa balay sa iyang higala nga si Elmer Pelago diin didto kini nanihapon.

Nagduda ang kapulisan nga lagmit giatangan sa dalan ang biktima sa wala pa mailhing kriminal ug didto kini gipatay. Grabeng bun-og sa ulo ang naangkon ni Vivar nga gidudahang gipusposan sa kawayan nga nakit-an duol sa iyang lawas.

Si Salonoy miingon nga guoron nga kawayan ang ilang nakuha  diha sa crime scene.

“Gahi kaayo to nga kawayan kay kadtong dapit sa punoan, solid kaayo mao’y gigamit pagbunal,” matud pa ni Salonoy. Nagduda ang kapolisan nga natripingan sa mga bugoy ang biktima bisan kini baldado molakaw. (Jojo C. Ugdol/EIM)(BANAT NEWS)

PATAY ang usa ka babaye human nibangga ang iyang gisakyang motorsiklo sa poste sa national highway, Barangay Poblacion, lungsod sa Pi­namungajan, Sugbo, alas 3:25 kagahapon sa kaadlawon.

Ang biktima giila nga si Diana Atol, 26, dalaga, taga Sitio Bonbon, Ba­rangay Poblacion, Pi­na­­mungajan, patay ng nia­abot sa tambalan.

Si Carla Bubuli, 25, da­laga, taga Sitio Looc, Barangay Bato, dakba­yan sa Toledo, kinsa ma­oy nagmaneho sa Suzuki duna’y temporary plate no. TBE 1480, luwas na ang kahimtang.

Ang duha parehog na­kainom ug nagpadulong mopauli gikan sa disko sa Barangay Cabiangon, sumala nila ni PO2 Froilan Velasquez ug PO1 Kay Pulmano nga ning­res­ponde sa alarma.

Giingong wala nabantayan ni Bubuli ang likuong dapit sa dalan busa nadusmog ngadto sa pos­te sa kuryente.

Tungod sa kakusog sa impact, nahagbong ang mga biktima gikan sa motorsiklo ug nakit-ang way panimuot ug naka­angkon og grabeng ka­daot sa ilang ulo.

Gidala ang duha sa Pi­­namungajan District Hos­pital apan, dead-on-ar­rival si Atol. Kristine Cabal­les, USJ-R intern


Gipatik sa mantalaang Superbalita Cebu Disyembre 15, 2015.

When on Thursday (Dec. 10) things got particularly tricky in Paris, indabas were held in private rooms at all hours of the day. Different delegations rotated officials so that everyone could get some sleep.

It seems to have worked. “Including everyone and allowing often hostile countries to speak in earshot of observers, [one indaba] achieved a remarkable breakthrough within 30 minutes,” according to the Guardian. The agreement was presented today, and in a historic first all 195 countries adopted it without any objections.

Indabas were first introduced in climate negotiation talks in Durban in 2011. In the last minutes of the meeting, negotiators reached a deadlock. To prevent talks from collapsing, the South African presidency asked representatives from the main countries to form a standing circle and speak directly to each other.

The technique clearly impressed many. “It is a very effective way to streamline negotiations and bridge differences. It has the advantage of being participatory yet fair,” one West African diplomat told the Guardian. “It should be used much more when no way through a problem can be found.” -- http://qz.com/

Negotiations are difficult by nature. Managing negotiations between 195 countries in order to arrive at a legally binding agreement, on the other hand, is nearly impossible. This was the problem that United Nations officials faced over two weeks at this month’s climate-change summit in Paris. To solve it, they brought in a unique management strategy.

The trick to getting through an over-complicated negotiation comes from the Zulu and Xhosa people of southern Africa. It’s called an “indaba” (pronounced IN-DAR-BAH), and is used to simplify discussions between many parties.

An indaba is designed to allow every party to voice its opinion, but still arrive at a consensus quickly. It works because opinions and arguments can only be aired in a particular way:

Instead of repeating stated positions, each party is encouraged to speak personally and state their “red lines,” which are thresholds that they don’t want to cross. But while telling others their hard limits, they are also asked to provide solutions to find a common ground.